Couldn't decipher the logic of this php code

Question

Hello, I am very new to programming and PHP. Here is a PHP code I admit I didn't manage to decipher. This question actually has 2 other twin-questions with 90% the same code in them - All 3 where very much un-undestandable to me even though I answered all others successfully; I am surprised Alena Holligan used such complicated-tricky code in such an early stage and actually 2 veteran php programmers I showed them the code where indeed surprised it is given to me in that course (I myself have knowledge in Psychology and education and I do feel, in contrast to all other learning materials I had so far, that this is a bit exaggerated). Anyway:

I do understand there are 6 variables in this code and a foreach internal loop that runs through the array and includes an if-then statement. I also understand that one of the 6 variables is situated in the foreach loop (and represents each array value independently) but I didn't understand the logic of the code in general.

Can someone write a pseudocode for this in a stepped way and detail as much as possible in a didactic way for newcomers like me? I know this code is not minimalistic and might seem unusual - I found it in a practice sheet.

<?php

$numbers = array(1,2,3,4);

$total = count($numbers);

$sum = 0;

$output = "";

$i = 0;

foreach($numbers as $number) {

    $i = $i + 1;

    if ($i < $total) {

        $sum = $sum + $number;

    }

}

echo $sum;

?>

Answer 1 · 2016-02-01T03:06:20Z

February 1, 2016 3:06am

Although I haven't watched this course yet, breaking this code down is easy:

<?php
// an array with 4 elements in it
$numbers = array(1,2,3,4);

// count() function gets how many elements in the array
$total = count($numbers); // 4

// self explanatory
$sum = 0;

// self explanatory, yet not used at all in this code
$output = "";

// used for an iterator 
$i = 0;

// this will loop through each element in the array
// the $numbers array can also be written like
// $numbers = array(0=> 1, 1 => 2, 2 => 3, 3=> 4);
// When you use a foreach loop like this, you're passing in the array $numbers
// and using a placeholder ($number) to represent the value of the element this 
// foreach loop iterates through from beginning element (0) to end element (3).
// I'll run through this loop step by step.

// Step 0. Enter loop
// Step 1. $number is first element of the $numbers array.  $number = 1.
// Step 2. $i = 0
// Step 3. Add 1 to $i
// Step 4. $i = 1
// Step 5. Check if $i is less than $total. (in this case, 1 is less than 4, so enter inside the if statement)
// Step 6. Add this number to $sum. $sum = 0 so $sum now equal 0 + 1)
// Step 7. $sum = 1.
// Step 8. Start back to the top of the foreach loop for the second element.
// Step 9. $number is second element of the $numbers array.  $number = 2
// Step 10. $i = 1
// Step 11. Add 1 to $i
// Step 12. $i = 2
// Step 13. Check if $i is less than $total. (in this case, 2 is less than 4, so enter inside the if statement)
// Step 14. Add this number to $sum. $sum = 1 so $sum now equal 1 + 2)
// Step 15. $sum = 3.
// Step 16. Start back to the top of the foreach loop for the third element.
// Step 17. $number is third element of the $numbers array.  $number = 3
// Step 18. $i = 2
// Step 19. Add 1 to $i
// Step 20. $i = 3
// Step 21. Check if $i is less than $total. (in this case, 3 is less than 4, so enter inside the if statement)
// Step 22. Add this number to $sum. $sum = 3 so $sum now equal 3 + 3)
// Step 23. $sum = 6.
// Step 24. Start back to the top of the foreach loop for the fourth and last element.
// Step 24. $number is last element of the $numbers array.  $number = 4
// Step 25. $i = 3
// Step 26. Add 1 to $i
// Step 27. $i = 4
// Step 28. Check if $i is less than $total. (in this case, 4 is NOT less than 4, so skip if statement)
// Step 29. exit loop, not more elements to iterate through
// Step 30, echo $sum (which equals 6)

foreach($numbers as $number) {
    $i = $i + 1;  

    if ($i < $total) {
        $sum = $sum + $number;
    }
}

echo $sum;

?>

If I had to guess, the reason the loop was written like this was to omit adding the last element of the array to the $sum. I hope this sheds some light on the flow of the foreach loop. If you every want to understand whats going on inside of a foreach loop and check which values are what, you could put a couple echo statements inside of it like so to see what's really happening.

foreach($numbers as $number) {
echo "Number = " . $number . "<br>";
    $i = $i + 1;  
echo '$i = ' . $i . "<br>";
    if ($i < $total) {
echo "Inside if statement <br>";
echo "Sum before: " . $sum . "<br>";
        $sum = $sum + $number;
echo "Sum after: " . $sum . "<br>";
    }
}

echo $sum;

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Ben Os

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Couldn't decipher the logic of this php code

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Mike Costa

Mike Costa