PHP and MySQL Web Development 4th Ed-tqw-_darksiderg

86 Chapter 3 Using Arrays
The following code lists the contents of the $prices array using the each() construct:
while ($element = each($prices)) {
echo $element['key'];
echo " – ";
echo $element['value'];
echo "";
}
The output of this script fragment is shown in Figure 3.2.
Figure 3.2
An each() statement can be used to loop through arrays.
In Chapter 1, you looked at while loops and the echo statement.The preceding code
uses the each() function, which you have not used before.This function returns the
current element in an array and makes the next element the current one. Because you
are calling each() within a while loop, it returns every element in the array in turn and
stops when the end of the array is reached.
In this code, the variable $element is an array.When you call each(), it gives you
an array with four values and the four indices to the array locations.The locations key
and 0 contain the key of the current element, and the locations value and 1 contain the
value of the current element. Although the one you choose makes no difference, we
chose to use the named locations rather than the numbered ones.
There is a more elegant and more common way of doing the same thing.The construct
list() can be used to split an array into a number of values.You can separate two
of the values that the each() function gives you like this:
while (list($product, $price) = each($prices)) {
echo "$product - $price";
}