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PHP PHP Functions Introducing Functions PHP Function Arguments

Adam Simpson
Adam Simpson
1,470 Points

foreach loops

I can't seem to find an answer for why when using a foreach loop you need to assign an array a new name with 'as'.

For example below

<?php $colors = array("red", "green", "blue", "yellow");

foreach ($colors as $value) { echo "$value <br>"; } ?>

Could you not just loop through you array with $colors?

Thanks

1 Answer

Benjamin Larson
Benjamin Larson
34,055 Points

With the foreach loop, you are looping through the $colors array and assigning the value of each element (color) to a new variable. So you aren't renaming the $colors array, you are giving a variable name to temporarily represent the individual elements as they are looped through. If you had:

<?php
foreach ($colors as $color) {
 echo $color;
} 

each individual color would be temporarily stored in the $color variable, but that variable would be overwritten after each iteration.

You could use a traditional for loop, in which case you access the the values by using the array index.

<?php

for ($i = 0;  $i < count($colors); $i++) {
  echo $colors[i]
}

The $color variable in the first example is essentially equivalent to saying $color = $colors[i] for each respective iteration, in which case the value of $color would be replaced at each iteration. Hopefully that makes sense :)

Adam Simpson
Adam Simpson
1,470 Points

Thanks very much Benjamin, this was very helpful.