PHP foreach
last modified January 10, 2023
PHP foreach tutorial shows how to loop over array elements and object properties in PHP with foreach statement.
$ php -v php -v PHP 8.1.2 (cli) (built: Aug 8 2022 07:28:23) (NTS) ...
We use PHP version 8.1.2.
PHP foreach statement
The foreach statement simplifies traversing over collections of data. The foreach statement goes through the array elements or object properties one by one and the current value is copied to a variable defined in the construct.
PHP foreach example
The following example loops over array elements.
<?php
$planets = [ "Mercury", "Venus", "Earth", "Mars", "Jupiter",
"Saturn", "Uranus", "Neptune" ];
foreach ($planets as $item) {
echo "$item ";
}
echo "\n";
We have an array of planets. With the foreach statement we go
through elements and print them one by one.
$ php planets.php Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune
This is the output.
PHP foreach example II
The next example loops over an array/dictionary.
<?php
$benelux = [ 'be' => 'Belgium',
'lu' => 'Luxembourgh',
'nl' => 'Netherlands' ];
foreach ($benelux as $key => $value) {
echo "$key is $value\n";
}
The example prints the key/value pairs of the array.
$ php dictionary.php be is Belgium lu is Luxembourgh nl is Netherlands
This is the output.
PHP foreach alternative syntax
PHP supports an alternative syntax with foreach and endforeach;.
<?php
$planets = [ "Mercury", "Venus", "Earth", "Mars", "Jupiter",
"Saturn", "Uranus", "Neptune" ];
foreach ($planets as $planet):
echo "$planet ";
endforeach;
echo "\n";
In the example, we loop over the array using the alternative syntax.
PHP foreach multidimensional array
We can use multiple foreach statements to loop over multidimensional
arrays.
<?php
$vals = [ [1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9] ];
foreach ($vals as $nested) {
foreach ($nested as $val) {
echo $val . ' ';
}
echo "\n";
}
In the example, we use two foreach statements to go over
a two-dimensional array of integers.
$ php multidim.php 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
This is the output.
PHP foreach modify array elements
By using the ampersand operator (&), the foreach statement works
with a reference to the array element.
<?php
$vals = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
foreach ($vals as &$val) {
$val *= 2;
}
print_r($vals);
In the example, we go through the array of integers and multiply each element by two.
$ php modify_array.php
Array
(
[0] => 2
[1] => 4
[2] => 6
[3] => 8
[4] => 10
)
The array has been modified.
PHP foreach object properties
The following example iterates over object properties.
<?php
class User
{
public $name;
public $occupation;
public function __construct($name, $occupation) {
$this->name = $name;
$this->occupation = $occupation;
}
}
$user = new User('John Doe', 'gardener');
foreach ($user as $propName => $propValue) {
echo "$propName: $propValue\n";
}
The user object has two properties: $name and $occupation.
We loop over those properties with foreach.
$ php object.php name: John Doe occupation: gardener
This is the output.
In this article we have presented the PHP foreach statement.
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