Learning Loops

A significant advantage of computers is that they can perform repetitive tasks easily and efficiently. Instead of writing repetitive code you can write a set of statements that processes some data and then have the computer execute them repeatedly by using a construct known as a loop. Loops come in several different flavors in PHP: for, while, do-while, and foreach. I’ll introduce you to each of them and show you how they can making repetitive tasks straightforward and easy to maintain.

The for Loop

Let’s consider the example of generating a multiplication table for the number 12. You could calculate and display the values resulting from multiplying 12 by 1, 2, 3 etc. like so:

<?php
echo "1 × 12 = " . (1 * 12) . "<br>";
echo "2 × 12 = " . (2 * 12) . "<br>";
echo "3 × 12 = " . (3 * 12) . "<br>";
...

… and so on. Maybe extending the code to 12×12 would be quick, a simple matter of copy, paste, and amend. But what if the calculation needed to go up to 50×12? The copy and paste approach is really an inefficient use of your time and can lead to unwieldy code down the road.

But never fear! A solution is at hand – the for loop.

<?php
for ($i = 1; $i <= 12; $i++) {
    echo $i . " × 12 = " . ($i * 12) . "<br>";
}

This example shows how few lines are needed to create the multiplication table for any arbitrary value.

There are three separate expressions used with a for loop which are separated by semicolons and contained within the parentheses:

• The first expression $i = 1 initializes the variable $i to be used as a counter ($i is a commonly used variable name for loop counters). The counter will be used to keep track of how many times the loop has executed.
• The second expression $i <= 12 determines whether to stop the loop or proceed. In this case, the loop will execute 12 times. To be more precise the loop will continue while $i has a value less than or equal to 12. Once $i has a higher value, the loop will stop.
• The third expression $i++ updates the counter. $i is incremented by 1 each time after the loop as completed a cycle. A cycle of a loop is also known as an iteration.

From a maintenance perspective, if you need to change the code to extend the range up to 50×12, then only the value in the second expression needs to be changed:

<?php
for ($i = 1; $i <= 50; $i++) {
    echo $i . " × 12 = " . ($i * 12) . "<br>";
}

This is clearly better than adding 38 more lines of code!

Now what if you want to process in reverse i.e. multiplying 12 by 12, then 11, then 10, and so on? It’s easy if you simply adjust the three expressions.

<?php
for ($i = 12; $i > 0; $i--) {
    echo $i . " × 12 = " . ($i * 12) . "<br>";
}

$i is initialized to 12, the value the loop needs to start with. $i > 0 ensures the loop will only iterate while $i is 1 or greater. After each cycle, the value of $i is decremented by one.

The while and do-while Loops

A for loop is suitable when you have to carry out a finite number of actions. There may be times though when you need to carry out repetitive actions for an unspecified number of iterations. In this circumstance either of the while or do-while loops is ideal.

This example illustrates a do-while loop that reads a file and prints the contents – you don’t know in advance how many lines of data there are in this file so using for would clearly not be suitable.

<?php
$file = "employees.csv";
$employeeFile = fopen($file, "r");
do {
    $data = fgets($employeeFile);
    echo $data . "<br>"; 
}
while (!feof($employeeFile));

Note that the do keyword precedes the opening brace and the while clause follows the closing brace. The loop will continue until reaching the end of the file, irrespective of whether there are 5 or 500 lines.

The same example as a while loop only looks like this:

<?php
$file = "employees.csv";
$employeeFile = fopen($file, "r");
while (!feof($employeeFile)) {
    $data = fgets($employeeFile);
    echo $data . "<br>"; 
}

So how does this differ from do-while? There is a subtle but important difference – do-while will execute at least once because the end of file condition is checked only after the first iteration. The while loop begins execution only if we are not at the end of file.

The foreach Loop

You’ve seen a straightforward example of printing the multiplication table for the number 12. Let’s look now at another example, this time using an array. As the article Introduction to PHP Arrays points out, arrays are essentially indexed tables of data. Consider this array holding the months of the year:

==img1==

To access the value, you need the associated key. To illustrate how you might use $i as a key as well as a counter, let’s print calendar months from an array called $months:

<?php
$months = array("January", "February", "March", ... "Dec");
for ($i = 0; $i < 12; $i++) {
    echo $months[$i] . "<br>";
}

You are using the for loop like before but with two subtle differences – first, $i is initialized to 0 because the first item in an automatically-indexed array is 0. Second, the condition checks that the counter is less than 12 because the loop must stop once 12 items have been processed (key values 0 to 11 in the array).

You may have guessed there is an alternative to using for. Yes, that alternative is foreach. It doesn’t require you to know in advance how many array elements there are or to keep track of a counter variable.

There are two variations of the foreach loop and I’ll show you both. The first retrieves just the value of each array element.

<?php
foreach ($months as $value) {
	echo $value . "<br>";
}

You can see how this is a simpler solution for iterating through an array than using for. Within the parentheses you provide the array name followed by the as keyword and a variable to which will be assigned the current element’s value. In this case, $months is the array and $value is the value variable. There is no need for counters or checking whether the loop should continue and, if the array size changes, there is no need to change any code.

In the other foreach variant you have access to the key as well as the value:

<?php
foreach ($months as $key => $mon) {
	echo $key . " - " . $mon . "<br>";
}

Here $key => has been added to the expression, which allows you to access the key value.

The break and continue Keywords

I’ve assumed throughout this article that you want to process a loop from start to finish. It is of course possible that you may want to exit from a loop early if a certain condition occurs. For this you can use the break keyword, as shown in the following modified example of the earlier do-while loop:

<?php
$file = "employee.sql";
$employeeFile = fopen($file, "r");
do {
    $data = fgets($employeeFile);
    if (strlen($data) == 0) {
        break; 
    }
    else {
        echo $data; 
    }
}
while (!feof($employeeFile));

Each line of the file is retrieved and checked – if the line is blank, break is used to exit the loop immediately. The while clause keeps the loop running as long as it has not yet reached end of the file.

If you do not want to exit from the loop, but instead carry on with the next iteration, use the continue keyword instead.

Summary

In this article you’ve seen there are a variety of ways in which loops can be used for repetitive tasks and to make your code easier to maintain. I’d like to leave you with some tips on using loops:

• Use for when you have a finite and known number of iterations.
• Use while or do-while when the number of iterations is not known but can be controlled by a condition (e.g. reaching the end of a file).
• Use foreach when you need to process each element in an array.
• If you need to break out completely from a loop, you can use break.
• If you want to skip the remaining statements for the iteration and continue on with the next one, you can use continue.

Image via Marcio Jose Bastos Silva / Shutterstock