looping through a array

[maxim]

Hi i have a accoiative array. it holds 10 elements. i loop through it like so

[code="php"]
foreach ($array as $key =>$val) {
          print "$key - $val";
}
[/code]

this prints out the 10 values.

i would like to only prind out lets say 3.

how would i go about doing this. i tryed putting the foreach loop in a while loop. but it either prints out the 10 element array 3 times. or it prints out the first element 3 times.

[king arthur]

[code]
for($i = 0; $i < 3; $i++)
{
list($key, $value) = each($array);
echo "$key - $value";
}
[/code]

[maxim]

hay that worked. thanks - ive never used the list(); function before because i was under the impression that foreach was the best way to loop through arrays.

thanks again this should help me in the future

[Ifa]

And if you want to use foreach and the array keys are from 0 to 9, then you can just use
[code]foreach ($array as $key =>$val) {
          print "$key - $val";
          if($key == 2) break;
}[/code]

[maxim]

ahh yes i how ever had a accoiative array. with diffrent strings as the keys

[Ifa]

You can also use this:
[code]foreach ($array as $key =>$val) {
          print "$key - $val";
          if($i == 3) break;
          $i++;
}[/code]

[maxim]

hah thats a very smart way to do it. its easyer to read and understand also so ill use it. i perfer foreach loops also. how ever theres a small but. its actualy loops through the array four time not three. be cause $i starts off as 0. so. you need to assign a value of 1 to $i, out side the loop.

[code]
$i = 1;
foreach ($array as $key =>$val) {
          print "$key - $val<br  />";
          if($i == 3) break;
          $i++;
}
[/code]
of course you could just use 2 insted of three. like you did in your original post.
[code]
if($i == 2) break;
[/code]

but i set the value of $i as the code is more logical

but yeah thanks heaps for that Ifa. the break; keyword is definalty one to remember

[gerkintrigg]

I'd have done it Ifa's way too...

[Ifa]

Yeap, your right about the $i thingy... One can't remeber it all :)

[maxim]

hay ifa or any one else. i was reading up on the python prgramming language and long story short its a strange language! it calls arrays "lists" any way they have a inbuilt kinda thing called sliceing. to only output a certian number of elemnts in a list (or array).

i checked out the php manual and sure enough php has a array_slice() fuction. take a look

http://au2.php.net/function.array-slice

so with out testing it i assume this will produce the same results

[code]$first_three = array_slice($array, 0, 3);[/code]

what do you guys think of the array_slice() fuction ? is it better to use it ? or just stick with looping through a bigger array ans using break; to stop the loop once you have your deired output ?

edit::

actualy i dont think it works on assoc arrays :(

[Barand]

Works fine on associative arrays, but the count/break is more efficient.
[code]
<?php
$array = array('a'=>1,'b'=>2,'c'=>3,'d'=>4,'e'=>5,'f'=>6,'g'=>7,'h'=>8,'i'=>9);
$count=0;
foreach ($array as $key =>$val) {
          print "$key - $val<br/>";
          if (++$count == 3) break;
}
echo "--------------------------------<br/>";
$subarray = array_slice($array, 0, 3);
foreach ($subarray as $key =>$val) {
          print "$key - $val<br/>";
}

?>[/code]

-->[pre]
a - 1
b - 2
c - 3
--------------------------------
a - 1
b - 2
c - 3

[/pre]