PHP Looping - For Loops

Loops execute a block of code a specified number of times, or while a specified condition is true.

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The for Loop

The for loop is used when you know in advance how many times the script should run.

Syntax

for (init; condition; increment)   {   code to be executed;   }

Parameters:

• init: Mostly used to set a counter (but can be any code to be executed once at the beginning of the loop)
• condition: Evaluated for each loop iteration. If it evaluates to TRUE, the loop continues. If it evaluates to FALSE, the loop ends.
• increment: Mostly used to increment a counter (but can be any code to be executed at the end of the loop)

Note: Each of the parameters above can be empty, or have multiple expressions (separated by commas).

Example

The example below defines a loop that starts with i=1. The loop will continue to run as long as i is less than, or equal to 5. i will increase by 1 each time the loop runs:

for ($i=1; $i<=5; $i++)   {   echo "The number is " . $i . " ";   } ?>

Output:

The number is 1 The number is 2 The number is 3 The number is 4 The number is 5

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The foreach Loop

The foreach loop is used to loop through arrays.

Syntax

foreach ($array as $value)   {   code to be executed;   }

For every loop iteration, the value of the current array element is assigned to $value (and the array pointer is moved by one) - so on the next loop iteration, you'll be looking at the next array value.

Example

The following example demonstrates a loop that will print the values of the given array:

$x=array("one","two","three"); foreach ($x as $value)   {   echo $value . " ";   } ?>

Output:
one
two
three