<?php

use Doctrine\ORM\Tools\SchemaTool;
use Doctrine\DBAL\Types\Type;
use Doctrine\DBAL\Platforms\AbstractPlatform;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as A;

/**
 * your own doctrine type for multiple files in a directory
 */
class DirType extends Type
{
    // the type of your db that should be used (here: VARCHAR)
    public function getSqlDeclaration(array $fieldDeclaration, AbstractPlatform $platform)
    {
        return $platform->getVarcharTypeDeclarationSQL($fieldDeclaration);
    }
    
    // get your value php ready
    public function convertToPHPValue($value, AbstractPlatform $platform)
    {
        // be sure to have a valid path
        return new DirectoryIterator($value);
    }
    
    // get your value sql ready
    public function convertToDatabaseValue($value, AbstractPlatform $platform)
    {
        // be sure you have a DirectoryIterator
        return $value->getPath();
    }
    
    // name of your new doctrine type
    public function getName()
    {
        return 'dir';
    }
}

/**
 * Entity that uses the new type
 *
 * @A\Entity
 * @A\Table(name="budgie")
 */
class Budgie
{
    /**
     * @A\Column(type="integer", name="id")
     * @A\Id
     * @A\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
     */
    public $id;
    
    /**
     * the dir type creates a DirectoryIterator from saved directory path
     * use a constructor to preset it with a default value
     *
     * @A\Column(type="dir", length=255, name="budgie_pics")
     */
    public $budgiePics;
}

// add your type to doctrine
Type::addType('dir', DirType::CLASS);
$entityManager->getConnection()
    ->getDatabasePlatform()
    ->registerDoctrineTypeMapping('DirType', 'dir');

// get sql create query from Budgie entity
$tool = new SchemaTool($entityManager);
$classes = array(
    $entityManager->getClassMetadata(Budgie::CLASS),
);

$queries = $tool->getCreateSchemaSql($classes);
    
echo SqlFormatter::format($queries[0]);

CREATE TABLE budgie (
  id INT AUTO_INCREMENT NOT NULL, 
  budgie_pics VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, 
  PRIMARY KEY(id)
) DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci ENGINE = InnoDB

• One way to get a random Doctrine entity
• Iterate through results in Doctrine less memory intensive
• Caching Doctrine results for performance

PHP 7.3, Zend 3.0, Symfony 4.3, Laravel 5.8, PHPUnit 8.0, Doctrine 2.10