Previous, Current, Next. What's the scoop?

[davidjam]

OK, I have a multi-page form. If on the first page show a "next" button, if on the second page show a "previous" button (and a "next" if there is a third page), etc, and if on the last page only show a "previous" button.

$form->name = "username"; // or whatever page we are on
$parts = array("username","basic_info","shipping_info");

This is as far as I got:

foreach($parts as $part) {	
    if(!$next_part) { // first iteration
		if($part == $form->name) { // we must be on the first page, so:
			$previous_submit = false;
			break;
		}
	}
	$next_part = true;
	if($part == $form->name) { // check on subsequent iterations, and if so:
		$previous_submit = "<input type='image' .. src='button_{$previous_part} .. />";
		break;
	}
	$previous_part = $part;
}

But I don't know how to integrate the "next" part into that foreach. I am aiming at as few lines of code as possible to achieve this. Anyone want to take a stab? It takes a little more IQ than i've been blessed with... 🙂

[tekky]

your answer is in your subject actually... and of course on php.net's user submitions

function has_next($array) {
   if (is_array($array)) {
       if (next($array) === false) {
           return false;
       } else {
           return next($array);
       }
   } else {
       return false;
   }
}
function has_prev($array) {
   if (is_array($array)) {
       if (prev($array) === false) {
           return false;
       } else {
           return prev($array);
       }
   } else {
       return false;
   }
}

foreach($parts as $part)
{
  $prev = has_prev($parts);
  $current = $part;
  $next = has_next($parts);
  if ($prev)
    echo "<a href='$prev'>$prev</a>";
  echo "&nbsp;$current";
  if ($next)
    echo "&nbsp;<a href='$next'>$next</a>";
}

there's a basic rundown of it...

the 2 fucntions are modified slightly from php.net's suggestion, instead of returning onyl true/false, I made it return the NEXT or PREV value if there was one... and as the page on php.net states, since the array isnt passed by reference, then it doesnt affect the array in the foreach loop...

[davidjam]

Thanks tekky!

This got me going in a certain direction, and for my immediate purposes I didn't need to make functions for it, so here is what I ended up with. Please tell me if you think it will work:

$counter = 1;
for( ; ; ) {
	if(current($parts) == $form->name) {$current = true;} 
	if(!$current) {
		$previous = current($parts);
		next($parts);
		$counter++;
	} elseif(count($parts) > $counter) {
		$next = next($parts);
		break;
	} else {
		break;
	}
}

I guess I had to break out of the foreach paradigm I was stuck in.

[tekky]

I'm thinking not... but try it and see... its a bit convoluted for what I was thinking you were aiming for...

[davidjam]

Originally posted by tekky
I'm thinking not... but try it and see... its a bit convoluted for what I was thinking you were aiming for...

That's funny, because what I had done before was REALLY convoluted and long, so I thought this was pretty zippy. Well, I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and yes, it does work, so far... Thanks again, David.

BTW congrats on 2000 posts. 🙂

[tekky]

lol thanks, and yah its way better than your first post, I guess I was looking at mine w/o considering the 2 functions, yours would probably be the faster of the 2, just less readable w/o programming knowledge....

good job though