skipping a loop or two in a while loop

[westman]

Hi all,
I would like to escape a loop if $mainRow's value has already been called.
Here is what I have but it is not working.

while ($stmt->fetch()) {
$mail_main[] = $mainRow;

$main_arr .= ''.$main_arr.', '.$mainRow.'';
$main_arr_array = explode(",", $main_arr);
if (in_array($mainRow, $main_arr_array, TRUE)){
continue;
//break;
}
}

 

Edited March 29, 2018 by westman

[justsomeguy]

If you want to exit the loop you can use break instead of continue.

That code is pretty weird though.  Why do you concatenate everything in a string and then explode to an array, why not just add the new value to the array?  Also, wouldn't that in_array check always be true, because you just added it to the array right before checking?

[westman]

thank you.
I didn't see that.
I have updated my code

$main_arr_array = explode(",", $main_arr);
if (in_array($mainRow, $main_arr_array, TRUE)){
continue;
//break;
}
$main_arr .= ''.$mainRow.', ';

echo $main_arr;

This is the result...
5, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,
I only want one 5 to show.
How do I skip the loop?

Edited March 29, 2018 by westman

[dsonesuk]

https://www.w3schools.com/php/func_array_unique.asp

[dsonesuk]

Use temporary empty array $tmparray, and check through each value to check that the value is not in array !in_array() ($tmparray), if not, then add to the $tmparray.

At the end

echo implode(", ",$tmparray);

[westman]

I have updated the code once more...

$main_arr = '';
$main_arr_array = "";
// code
while ($stmt->fetch()) {
$mail_main[] = $mainRow;

$main_arr_array = explode(",", $main_arr);
if (in_array($mainRow, $main_arr_array, TRUE)){
continue;
//break;
}else{
$main_arr .= ''.$mainRow.', ';
//$main_arr .= implode(", ",$mainRow);
//$tmparray = implode(", ",$tmparray);
}

}

I am still not getting the skip.
Could you give a code example please?
 

[Ingolme]

You should not be using strings for this operation, work with arrays and then convert the result to a string (if necessary) when you're done.

I also recommend using a set rather than a list to check for duplicate items. A set is a data structure where the item itself is its own identifier. Finding an item in a set is much faster than searching for it in a list.

$already_used = []; // This is a set
$list = []; // This is a list

// Loop through results
while($row = $stmt->fetch()) {

  // Make sure that the item is not already in the set
  if(!isset($already_used[$row])) {

    // Add the item to the set
    $already_used[$row] = true;

    // Add the item to the list
    list[] = $row;

  }
}

// If necessary, convert the result into a comma-separated string
$output = implode(',', $list);

 

[dsonesuk]

        $uniqueValueArray = [];
        while($row = $stmt->fetch()) {

            if (!in_array($row, $uniqueValueArray)) {
                $uniqueValueArray[] = $row;
            }
        }

        echo implode(', ', $uniqueValueArray);

 

[westman]

thank you very much for the examples.
I am not sure I am using them right in my code.
 

while ($stmt->fetch()) {
$mail_main[] = $mainRow;

//$uniqueValueArray = []; this alone shows an error in Dreamweaver
$uniqueValueArray [] = $mainRow;
while($row = $stmt->fetch()) {

if (!in_array($row, $uniqueValueArray)) {
$uniqueValueArray[] = $row;
}
}

} // END while ($stmt->fetch()) {
echo implode(', ', $uniqueValueArray);

What am I doing so wrong?

Edited April 1, 2018 by westman

[dsonesuk]

IF $mainRow represents a single variable value then

$uniqueValueArray = []; // this is now the normal way of declaring a array variable since PHP 5.4
while ($stmt->fetch()) {

if (!in_array($mainRow, $uniqueValueArray)) {
$uniqueValueArray[] = $mainRow;
}

} // END while ($stmt->fetch())

echo implode(', ', $uniqueValueArray);

 

[westman]

Dsonesuk,
Thank you.
Here is my new code

$uniqueValueArray = [];

while ($stmt->fetch()) {
$mail_main[] = $mainRow;

if (!in_array($mainRow, $uniqueValueArray)) {
$uniqueValueArray[] = $mainRow;
}else{
continue;
}

} // END while ($stmt->fetch()) {
echo implode(', ', $uniqueValueArray);

It seems to work well.
Is there any way I can remove the error Adobe DW is showing me with $uniqueValueArray = []; ?

[dsonesuk]

Yeah! simple don't use it! or get a version that don't report it as an error, as I said, its totally valid since php version 5.4 and since where up to php version 7 now! It should accept this as valid.

[westman]

thank you so much.

[dsonesuk]

The 'continue' is not required, it does nothing, as all the values will be looped through, and does nothing with values added to arrays.

[westman]

without

else{
continue;
}

my code pulls out duplicates from the database.
my code only works correctly with "continue;" in place.
 

[dsonesuk]

Only from this

$mail_main[] = $mainRow;

because its not filtering duplicates, if you want that filtered change all '$uniqueValueArray' to '$mail_main'

[westman]

okay,
works well.
thank you.