PHP Foreach problems

Question

So I have an array $papers, that comes from a database. The size of the array can change at the will of whoever changes the database.

I thought that if I did something like:

foreach($papers as $paper) {
    echo '<option value="' . $paper . '">' . $paper . '</option>';
}

I could get a dynamic list in my form. However, for some reason when I try this, the webpage just comes up blank. Obviouslly I could do something like:

for($i = 0; $i < SOME_NUMBER; $i++) {
    echo '<option value="' . $papers[$i] . '">' . $papers[$i] . '</option>';
}

But with the size of the array being variable, it doesn't seem like a viable option. Also, when I use the second method of a simple for loop, the page loads, and the values do actually come up. I'm very confused as to why that is though. Any help would be awesome, thanks.

Option 1 is fine. What does print_r($papers); give you? Blank page means you need to turn on error reporting. — Matt Gibson
– Matt Gibson, Commented Jun 20, 2012 at 15:47
heres a couple of things that might help get it sorted. firstly try counting out how many results are in $papers 'echo count($papers);' also echo "<pre>"; print_r($papers); echo "</pre>"; your foreach should work fine. — azzy81
– azzy81, Commented Jun 20, 2012 at 15:47
"The webpage comes up blank" sounds like you have error reporting disabled. You could try ini_set("display_errors", 1); Remember to disable it again after you are done degugging — Fritz
– Fritz, Commented Jun 20, 2012 at 15:49

Khurram · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-20 15:50:48Z

2

you can modify your foreach loop like this

foreach($papers as $key => $value) {
    echo '<option value="' . $key . '">' . $value . '</option>';
}

where $key is holding the index and $value is holding actual value of array

i am not sure what data u are getting in your $papper array but i am guessing u can also do like this

foreach($papers as $paper) {
    echo '<option value="' . $paper['your_db_field_name'] . '">' . $paper['your_db_field_name'] . '</option>';
}

with simple for loop you can use sizeof() like below

for($i = 1 ; $i <= sizeof($pappers) ; $i++){
//your logic
}

answered Jun 20, 2012 at 15:50

Khurram

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Comments

MartinG · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-20 15:50:23Z

1

If you want to use the array referencing method, try this:

for($i = 0; $i < count($papers); $i++) {
    echo '<option value="' . $papers[$i] . '">' . $papers[$i] . '</option>';
}

The count() function will return the length of the array which, as you say, may be different each time you run it.

answered Jun 20, 2012 at 15:50

MartinG

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Mouloud · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-20 15:52:42Z

0

turn on the error reporting

error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);
init_set('display_errors', 'on');

and try to debug with :

print_r($papers);

and look the structure of the array $papers

answered Jun 20, 2012 at 15:52

Mouloud

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