[RESOLVED] Count items in variable foreach loop - how?

TQ_designs

Hi, I'm trying to figure out how to count items in a foreach loop (whose length will constantly vary) and do something different when I reach the end. Here's the code:

$query = "INSERT INTO slotTest(courseID,weekID,dayID,timeID,stationID,open) VALUES (";
	foreach ($station as $stationID) {
		//check if station is open 
		if ($stationID != 'null') {
			foreach ($time as $timeID) {
				//check which time slots are open
				if ($timeID != 'null') {
					/* Count how many items are in this loop - how? */
					$query .= "$course,$week,$day,$timeID,$stationID,1)";
					/* If I'm at the end of the foreach loop break */
					$query .= ",(";
				}
			}
		} 
	}
	$query .= ";";
	echo $query;

Hopefully the comments between / / clarify exactly what I'm trying to do - figure out when I'm at the end of the $time foreach loop, and break out of it so the ,( characters don't get tacked on to the end of my $query string. It seems simple enough but I can't figure out what approach to use, so advice is much appreciated 🙂

DaiLaughing

Any reason you can't just increment a variable?
$i=0;
$i++;
if($i>100) {
//something
}

TQ_designs

I thought of that but I'm not sure where to put it - also, the number of items in the foreach loop I'm counting can fall anywhere from just a few to a max of nine. I need a counter that figures out when the end is reached rather than stopping at a specific number.

DaiLaughing

The $i=0; goes before the loop
The $i++; goes anywhere inside the loop which will be run every time (so not in an if)

Then each time the loop runs it will increment the variable.

After the loop finishes (outside the final }) put the if statement or a switch. The variable will be exactly how many times the loop ran.

TQ_designs

I don't think that would work with what I have - I need the if statement to strip out null timeIDs, and then the foreach loop iterates through whatever is left. For each valid timeID the foreach statement finds, it adds an extra line to my query string and puts in the ), to separate them. I just need to stop it from doing this at the very end of the loop.

DaiLaughing

Sorry, I posted whilst welcoming my daughter back from camp so rushed it. All you really need to do then is drop the last two characters off of the query after the loop finishes? Rather than not adding them you let them be added and take them off after with substr using a negative start number of -2 to get it to start from the end minus two:

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.substr.php

TQ_designs

Yes! That did the trick, thanks 🙂

DaiLaughing

You're welcome. Sorry it took three tries:o

Weedpacket

Why not strip out the nulls first (for that matter, why put them in in the first place)?

$station = array_diff($station, array('null'));
$time = array_diff($time, array('null'));
$lines_to_insert = array();
foreach($station as $stationId)
{
	foreach($time as $timeId)
	{
		$lines_to_insert[] = sprintf("(%d,%d,%d,%d,%d,1)", $course, $week, $day, $timeId, $stationId);
	}
}

$query = "INSERT INTO slotTest(courseID,weekID,dayID,timeID,stationID,open) VALUES " . join(',', $lines_to_insert);