- PHP Loops (while, do while, foreach & for) Tutorial
- PHP Loops
- Different Types of Loops in PHP
- PHP while Loop
- Example
- PHP do…while Loop
- Example
- Difference Between while and do…while Loop
- PHP for Loop
- Example
- PHP foreach Loop
- Example
- Example
- PHP: How to print associative array using while loop?
- adding values into an array using a while loop
- 4 Answers 4
PHP Loops (while, do while, foreach & for) Tutorial
In this tutorial, we learn how to control the flow of our application even further. We learn how PHP can help us iterate through sections of code with while, do-while, for and foreach loop statements.
We also cover so called nested loops, which are loops inside other loops. And finally, we compare each loop and explain when to use which one.
By default, the flow of an application written in PHP is sequential. It starts at the top and flows sequentially to the bottom. Many times we will need to alter this flow and allow specific sections of code to be repeated multiple times.
For this purpose, PHP offers us various types of iteration, or looping, logic which are capable of repeating sections of code. Iteration helps us with repetitive tasks and when dealing with big data.
As an example, let’s consider a database for a mailing list which contains entries for a name and email address.
When we want to send an email to everyone on the list, we will need to iterate through all the users in the database one by one. We then fetch their email address and send them an email.
The interpreter will start at the first user and send an email to that user. If there are more users in the database, it will process the next user in the database and send them an email too.
This process loops over and over for all the users in the database, or until we tell it to stop.
PHP offers us four types of loop statements:
A while loop will tell the interpreter to execute its code block repeatedly, as long as the while expression remains true. The expression will be evaluated each time at the beginning of the loop’s iteration.
The basic form of a while loop is as follows.
PHP Loops
In this tutorial you will learn how to repeat a series of actions using loops in PHP.
Different Types of Loops in PHP
Loops are used to execute the same block of code again and again, as long as a certain condition is met. The basic idea behind a loop is to automate the repetitive tasks within a program to save the time and effort. PHP supports four different types of loops.
- while — loops through a block of code as long as the condition specified evaluates to true.
- do…while — the block of code executed once and then condition is evaluated. If the condition is true the statement is repeated as long as the specified condition is true.
- for — loops through a block of code until the counter reaches a specified number.
- foreach — loops through a block of code for each element in an array.
You will also learn how to loop through the values of array using foreach() loop at the end of this chapter. The foreach() loop work specifically with arrays.
PHP while Loop
The while statement will loops through a block of code as long as the condition specified in the while statement evaluate to true.
The example below define a loop that starts with $i=1 . The loop will continue to run as long as $i is less than or equal to 3. The $i will increase by 1 each time the loop runs:
Example
PHP do…while Loop
The do-while loop is a variant of while loop, which evaluates the condition at the end of each loop iteration. With a do-while loop the block of code executed once, and then the condition is evaluated, if the condition is true, the statement is repeated as long as the specified condition evaluated to is true.
The following example define a loop that starts with $i=1 . It will then increase $i with 1, and print the output. Then the condition is evaluated, and the loop will continue to run as long as $i is less than, or equal to 3.
Example
Difference Between while and do…while Loop
The while loop differs from the do-while loop in one important way — with a while loop, the condition to be evaluated is tested at the beginning of each loop iteration, so if the conditional expression evaluates to false, the loop will never be executed.
With a do-while loop, on the other hand, the loop will always be executed once, even if the conditional expression is false, because the condition is evaluated at the end of the loop iteration rather than the beginning.
PHP for Loop
The for loop repeats a block of code as long as a certain condition is met. It is typically used to execute a block of code for certain number of times.
The parameters of for loop have following meanings:
- initialization — it is used to initialize the counter variables, and evaluated once unconditionally before the first execution of the body of the loop.
- condition — in the beginning of each iteration, condition is evaluated. If it evaluates to true , the loop continues and the nested statements are executed. If it evaluates to false , the execution of the loop ends.
- increment — it updates the loop counter with a new value. It is evaluate at the end of each iteration.
The example below defines a loop that starts with $i=1 . The loop will continued until $i is less than, or equal to 3. The variable $i will increase by 1 each time the loop runs:
Example
PHP foreach Loop
The foreach loop is used to iterate over arrays.
The following example demonstrates a loop that will print the values of the given array:
Example
There is one more syntax of foreach loop, which is extension of the first.
Example
"Peter Parker", "email" => "peterparker@mail.com", "age" => 18 ); // Loop through superhero array foreach($superhero as $key => $value)< echo $key . " : " . $value . "
"; > ?>
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PHP: How to print associative array using while loop?
try this syntax and this is best efficient way to do your job.
while (list($key, $value) = each($array_expression)) < statement > 1, 'b' => 2, 'c' => 3); print_r($data); while (list($key, $value) = each($data)) < echo '$'.$key .'='.$value; >?>
For reference please check this link.
Thanks. This is what I’m looking for 🙂 I don’t use while loop much in my projects, only for and foreach loop.
The best and easiest way to loop through an array is using foreach
foreach ($assocArray as $key => $value) echo $key . ' = ' . $value . '
';
$assocarray = array('a' => 1, 'b' => 2, 'c' => 3); $keys = array_keys($assocarray); rsort($keys); while (!empty($keys)) < $key = array_pop($keys); echo $key . ' = ' . $assocarray[$key] . '
'; >;
I have a simple solution for this, it will get the job done..
$x = array(0=>10,1=>11,2=>"sadsd"); end($x); $ekey = key($x); reset($x ); while(true)< echo "
".key($x)." mt24"> )" data-controller="se-share-sheet" data-se-share-sheet-title="Share a link to this answer" data-se-share-sheet-subtitle="" data-se-share-sheet-post-type="answer" data-se-share-sheet-social="facebook twitter devto" data-se-share-sheet-location="2" data-se-share-sheet-license-url="https%3a%2f%2fcreativecommons.org%2flicenses%2fby-sa%2f4.0%2f" data-se-share-sheet-license-name="CC BY-SA 4.0" data-s-popover-placement="bottom-start">Share )" title="">Improve this answer answered Jan 15, 2020 at 8:02 Aylian CraspaAylian Craspa 422 5 silver badges 11 bronze badges