PHP Array Functions and C Syntax Loop Methods Few People Even Know.

Jason Knight
Level Up Coding
Published in
10 min readDec 8, 2020

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Note, sorry but this article is going to skip between languages a bit.

Everyone knows about count, for and foreach. They’re the staple of programming array loops. If you work in PHP, you likely know what they do and how to use them…

But what aboutcurrent, end, key, last, next, prev, and reset?

Much less how if/do/while can be used to smartly make loops in most all C syntax languages?

Mad respect to you, Loop. Stone-face Killer.

I’ve been shocked the past year or so how many dev’s I come across who’ve never even heard of them, much less understand their use. What prompted this article is that I was just working on a “function stack” of anonymous that other processes can add to, and I used this because of the “You can’t add to an array inside a foreach” issue; and a colleague saw it and said “what the devil is that?!?” Actually he used a bit stronger language when he saw the do/while.

They are an alternative way of going through an array — and in some cases objects — based on the simple fact that:

PHP Array’s… Aren’t.

That might sound odd, but from the perspective of an assembly language, C, or Pascal/ADA developer like myself, it’s true. PHP fakes the APPEARANCE of arrays just like JavaScript does.

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Written by Jason Knight

Accessibility and Efficiency Consultant, Web Developer, Musician, and just general pain in the arse

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