disfunctional while loop

[TechnoDiver]

I've got a lot of questions today, it seems. I can't see where the problem is in this method, it seemed very simple when I started

<?php

public function recent() {
            $rule = "ORDER BY RAND()";
            $field = "type";
            $type = "recent";
            $query = $this->_db->get(self::$_table, array($field, "=", $type), $rule);
            $this->_data = $query->all();

            $counter = 0;
            while($counter <= 7) {
                foreach($this->data() as $obj) {
                    if(strlen($obj->title) > 25) {
                        $obj->title = substr($obj->title, 0, 25) . "...";
                    } 
                    $data = array("id" => $obj->id, "title" => $obj->title, "content" => $obj->content, "author" => $obj->author, "add_by" => $obj->add_by, "category" => $obj->post_category, "image" => $obj->post_image, "num_likes" => $obj->num_likes, "num_comments" => $obj->num_comments, "num_views" => $obj->num_views, "post_cat_id" => $obj->post_cat_id, "date_added" => $obj->date_added );

                    echo $this->html($type, $data);

                    $counter ++;
                }
                // $counter ++;
            }
            
        }

It's pretty self explanatory. retrieve all items within the criteria and display the first 8. Problem is it displays all of the items that fit the criteria. It works fine other than that and I can't see the problem. What am I overlooking?

[kicken]

Your foreach loop will run to completion (ie, print every row) before your while loop condition gets re-evaluated.  In pseudo-code, what you wrote is this:

while $counter < 8
    for each result $row
        print $row
        increment $counter
    end
end

Where as what you want to write, is

while $counter < 8
    fetch next result $row
    if $row exists
        print $row
    end
    increment $counter
end
                  

There are multiple ways to write that.  One way is to fetch a row at a time rather than everything.  Another is to fetch it all like you are now, but break; after the 8th row.

Edited September 14, 2021 by kicken

[maxxd]

A more efficient way is to only select the 8 rows you're looking for instead of selecting the entire table.

[TechnoDiver]

3 hours ago, maxxd said:

A more efficient way is to only select the 8 rows you're looking for instead of selecting the entire table.

Do you mean only pulling 8 items from the DB? If that's what you mean could you provide a sample snippet please

[ginerjm]

Add "limit 8" to your query.