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do-while> <Syntaxe alternative
Last updated: Fri, 23 Jan 2009

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while

La boucle while est le moyen le plus simple d'implémenter une boucle en PHP. Cette boucle se comporte de la même manière qu'en C. L'exemple le plus simple d'une boucle while est le suivant :

while (expression)
    commandes

La signification d'une boucle while est très simple. PHP exécute l'instruction tant que l'expression de la boucle while est évaluée comme TRUE. La valeur de l'expression est vérifiée à chaque début de boucle, et, si la valeur change durant l'exécution de l'instruction, l'exécution ne s'arrêtera qu'à la fin de l'itération (chaque fois que PHP exécute l'instruction, on appelle cela une itération). De temps en temps, si l'expression du while est FALSE avant la première itération, l'instruction ne sera jamais exécutée.

Comme avec le if, vous pouvez regrouper plusieurs instructions dans la même boucle while en les regroupant à l'intérieur de parenthèses ou en utilisant la syntaxe suivante :

while (expression):
    commandes
    ...
endwhile;

Les exemples suivants sont identiques et affichent tous les nombres de 1 jusqu'à 10 :

<?php
/* exemple 1 */

$i 1;
while (
$i <= 10) {
    echo 
$i++;  /* La valeur affiche est $i avant l'incrémentation
                   (post-incrémentation)  */
}

/* exemple 2 */

$i 1;
while (
$i <= 10):
    echo 
$i;
    
$i++;
endwhile;
?>



do-while> <Syntaxe alternative
Last updated: Fri, 23 Jan 2009
 
add a note add a note User Contributed Notes
while
s dot seitz at netz-haut dot de
24-Jun-2008 08:21
Due to the fact that php only interprets the necessary elements to get a result, I found it convenient to concatenate different sql queries into one statement:

<?php

$q1
= 'some query on a set of tables';
$q2 = 'similar query on a another set of tables';

if ( ((
$r1=mysql_query($q1)) && ($r2=mysql_query($q2)) ) {

     while ((
$row=mysql_fetch_assoc($r1))||($row=mysql_fetch_assoc($r2))) {

        
/* do something with $row coming from $r1 and $r2 */

     
}
   }

?>
dominik at deobald dot org
23-Feb-2007 08:50
@stuart:

There's nothing strange or unexpected about your loop's behaviour.

> So in effect the main while loop is only doing one iteration... and not 4 as expected....

That's the wrong conclusion. The outer "while" does all four iterations. However the "inner" loop does nothing for the second, third and fourth run.

> I think it would be good to have an explaination of this strange behaviour.

Here it is:

<?PHP
$i
=0;
while(
$i < count($one)) {
  
   while(
$a = each($two)) {
       echo
$a[1]." - ".$one[$i].", ";
   }
  
$i++;
  
}
?>

The "problem" is your use of "each", which reached the last item after the first iteration of the outer loop. After that, when you come back to the second iteration with the outer loop, "each" still is at the end of the array $two.

If you add a reset($two) in front of the inner "while", you'll get the result you expect.
startide at free dot fr
27-Apr-2006 08:08
Talking about while, dropdown menus, and ternary operator which was mentionned before, you can combine them to have drop menu built with a value selected according to your wishses.

<select name="whatever">
<?php
while ($data = mysql_fetch_assoc($requeteID))
{
 
$menu .= '<option value="'.$data['id'].'"';
 
$menu .= ($data['id'] == $_GET['id'] ? ' selected>' :'>');
 
$menu .= $data['name'].'</option>';
}
echo
$menu;
?>
</select>

Therefore if you are creating a form to select data from database, and want the form displayed when search is done to show what parameters have been chosen that will do the trick !!

Let's say I make a search between different sports, I choose football in my form, send my query... then displays are show, the menu will have football selected because of the ternary operator that displays "selected>" on the <option> ;) Enjoy ^^
sub7ime at yahoo dot com
04-Apr-2006 12:00
I was reading the excellent post by wbryson at gmail dot com and I wanted to just add that the ? : syntax is known as the 'ternary operator' for those who want to learn more about it.
chris mushy
11-May-2005 06:43
Just a note to stuart - the reason for this behaviour is because using the while(value = each(array)) construct increments the internal counter of the array as its looped through. Therefore if you intend to repeat the loop, you need to reset the counter. eg:

$one = array("10", "20", "30", "40");
$two = array("a", "b", "c", "d");

$i=0;
while($i < count($one)) {
   reset($two);
   while($a = each($two)) {
       echo $a[1]." - ".$one[$i].", ";
   }
   $i++;
  
}

This produces:

a - 10, b - 10, c - 10, d - 10, a - 20, b - 20, c - 20, d - 20, a - 30, b - 30, c - 30, d - 30, a - 40, b - 40, c - 40, d - 40,
stuart
11-May-2005 02:06
A note to anyone nesting a while loop inside a while loop....

Consider the example below:

$one = array("10", "20", "30", "40");
$two = array("a", "b", "c", "d");

$i=0;
while($i < count($one)) {
   
    while($a = each($two)) {
        echo $a[1]." - ".$one[$i].", ";
    }
    $i++;
   
}

This will return the following:
a - 10, b - 10, c - 10, d - 10

So in effect the main while loop is only doing one iteration... and not 4 as expected....

Now the example below works as expected..
$i=0;
while($i < count($one)) {
   
    foreach($two as $a) {
        echo $a." - ".$one[$i]."\n";
    }
    $i++;
   
}

by returning:
a - 10, b - 10, c - 10, d - 10, a - 20, b - 20, c - 20, d - 20, a - 30, b - 30, c - 30, d - 30, a - 40, b - 40, c - 40, d - 40

So there is clearly a difference on how while statements work in comparison to other looping structures.

I think it would be good to have an explaination of this strange behaviour.
13-Mar-2005 09:54
virtualjosh at yahoo dot com (Hosh) wrote on: 16-Aug-2003 12:52

The speedtest is interesting. But the seemingly fastest way contains a pitfall for beginners who just use it because it is fast and fast is cool ;)

Walking through an array with next() will cut of the first entry, as this is the way next() works ;)

If you really need to do it this way, make sure your array contains an empty entry at the beginning. Another way would be to use

<?php
while ($this = current($array) ){
   
do_something($this);
   
next($array);
}
?>

There is an impact on speed for sure but I did not test it. I would advise to stick with conventional methods because current(),next() in while loops is too error prone for me.
Ilene Jones
21-Feb-2005 01:12
For Perl programmers, break is similar to last

while (1) {
   while(cond) {
       if (error) {
           break 2; // in perl this could have been last;
       }
   }
}
corychristison[AT]NSPAMlavacube[dot]com
03-Dec-2004 03:08
While can do wonders if you need something to queue writing to a file while something else has access to it.

Here is my simple example:

<?php

 
function write ($data, $file, $write_mode="w") {
   
$lock = $file . ".lock";
    
// run the write fix, to stop any clashes that may occur
   
write_fix($lock);
    
// create a new lock file after write_fix() for this writing session
   
touch( $lock );
    
// write to your file
   
$open = fopen($file, $write_mode);
   
fwrite($open, $data);
   
fclose($open);
    
// kill your current lock
   
unlink($lock);
  }

  function
write_fix ($lock_file) {
    while(
file_exists($lock_file){
     
// do something in here?
      // maybe sleep for a few microseconds
      // to maintain stability, if this is going to
      // take a while ?? [just a suggestion]
   
}
  }

?>

This method is not recommended for use with programs that will be needing a good few seconds to write to a file, as the while function will eat up alot of process cycles.  However, this method does work, and is easy to implement.  It also groups the writing functions into one easy to use function, making life easier. :-)
virtualjosh at yahoo dot com (Hosh)
15-Aug-2003 03:52
I made a test traversing an array (simple, but long, numeric array with numeric keys). My test had a cycle per method, and multiplied each array element by 100.. These were my results:

******************************************************
30870 Element Array Traversing

[test_time] [BEGINS/RESETS @ time_start = 1060977996.689]
0.2373 seg later -> while (list ($key, $val) = each ($array)) ENDS

[test_time] [BEGINS/RESETS @ time_start = 1060977996.9414]
0.1916 seg later -> while (list ($key,) = each ($array))  ENDS

[test_time] [BEGINS/RESETS @ time_start = 1060977997.1513]
0.1714 seg later -> foreach ($array AS $key=>$value) ENDS

[test_time] [BEGINS/RESETS @ time_start = 1060977997.3378]
0.0255 seg later -> while ($next = next($array)) ENDS

[test_time] [BEGINS/RESETS @ time_start = 1060977997.3771]
0.1735 seg later -> foreach ($array AS $value) ENDS
**************************************************************

foreach is fatser than a while (list  - each), true.
However, a while(next) was faster than foreach.

These were the winning codes:

$array = $save;
test_time("",1);
foreach ($array AS $key=>$value)
    $array[$key] = $array[$key] * 100;
test_time("foreach (\$array AS \$key=>\$value)");

$array = $save;
test_time("",1);
reset($array);
while ($next = next($array))
{    $key = key($array);
    $array[$key] = $array[$key] * 100;
}       
test_time("while (\$next = next(\$array))");
*********************************************************
The improvement seems huge, but it isnt that dramatic in real practice. Results varied... I have a very long bidimensional array, and saw no more than a 2 sec diference, but on 140+ second scripts.  Notice though that you lose control of the $key  value (unless you have numeric keys, which I tend to avoid), but it is not always necessary. 

I generally stick to foreach. However, this time, I was getting Allowed Memory Size Exceeded errors with Apache. Remember foreach copies the original array, so this now makes two huge 2D arrays in memory and alot of work for Apache. If you are getting this error, check your loops. Dont use the whole array on a foreach. Instead get the keys and acces the cells directlly. Also, try and use unset and Referencing on the huge arrays.

Working on your array and loops is a much better workaround than saving to temporary tables and unsetting (much slower).
Merve
10-Jul-2003 09:49
This is an easy way for all you calculator creators to make it do factorials. The code is this:

<?php
$c
= ($a-1);
$d = $a;
while (
$c>=1)
{
$a = ($a*$c);
$c--;
}
print (
" $d! = $a");
?>

$a changes, and so does c, so we have to make a new variable, $d, for the end statement.
bens at effortlessis dot com
25-Jun-2003 05:32
I recently did a performance analysis, comparing while() and foreach() when traversing an array.

Foreach() is nearly 2x faster - an effect most notable when traversing large, multi-dimensional arrays.

Here's my code:
<?

for ($i=0; $i<10000; $i++)
        $a[$i]=$i*2;

echo "list time: \n".$start=mktime()."\n";
for ($i=0; $i<1000; $i++)
        {
        reset($a);
        while(list($k, $v)=each($a))
                {
                echo "";
                }
        }
echo ($finish=mktime())."\n";
$result=$finish-$start;
echo "Result: $result seconds\n\n";

echo "for time: \n".$start=mktime()."\n";
for ($i=0; $i<1000; $i++)
        {
        foreach($a as $k => $v)
                {
                echo "";
                }
        }
echo ($finish=mktime())."\n";
$result=$finish-$start;
echo "Result: $result seconds\n\n";
?>

And here's the results on an 1800+ Athlon:
list time:
1056579474
1056579512
Result: 38 seconds

fore time:
1056579512
1056579533
Result: 21 seconds
chayes at antenna dot nl
26-Feb-2002 02:42
At the end of the while (list / each) loop the array pointer will be at the end.
This means the second while loop on that array will be skipped!

You can put the array pointer back with the reset($myArray) function.

example:

<?php
$myArray
=array('aa','bb','cc','dd');
 while (list (
$key, $val) = each ($myArray) ) echo $val;
reset($myArray);
 while (list (
$key, $val) = each ($myArray) ) echo $val;
?>
moriarty at all-ears dot co dot uk
13-Feb-2002 12:58
If you want to skip an iteration of a while loop, you can use continue.

This will result in the rest of the present iteration being skipped, and it will go back to the start of the loop for the next iteration.

Moriarty
yohgaki at hotmail dot com
01-Apr-2001 01:09
If you want to traverse array, foreach() is faster than while() a little.
[Benched with PHP4.0.4pl1/Apache DSO/Linux]

i.e.
foreach ($array as $k => $v)
is a little faster than
while (list($k,$v) = each($array))

You might want to use foreach for large arrays.

do-while> <Syntaxe alternative
Last updated: Fri, 23 Jan 2009
 
 
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