Question

I have the following php script:

<?php
  session_start();
  global $db;
  $cart = $_SESSION['cart'];
  if ($cart) {
    $items = explode(',',$cart);
    $contents = array();
    foreach ($items as $item) {
      $contents[$item] = (isset($contents[$item])) ? $contents[$item] + 1 : 1;
    }

    $output[] = '<form action="cart.php?action=update" method="post" id="cart">';
    $total=0;
    echo 'you have following books';
    echo '</br>';
    $output[] = '<table>';

    foreach ($contents as $id=>$qty) {
      $sql = "SELECT * FROM books WHERE bcode ='$id'";
      $result = $db->query($sql);
      $row = $result->fetch();
      extract($row);
      $output[] = '<tr>';

      $a = $output[] = '<td>  '.$bname.'</td>';
      $output[] = '<td>'.$price.'rs.</td>';
      $output[] = '<td>*'.$qty.'</td>';
      '</br>';
      $output[] = '<td>Rs.'.($price * $qty).'</td>';
      $total += $price * $qty;
      $output[] = '</tr>';
    }

    $output[] = '</table>';
    $output[] = '<p>Grand total: <strong>Rs.'.$total.'</strong></p>';

    $output[] = '</form>';
  } else {
    $output[] = '<p>You shopping cart is empty.</p>';
  }


?>

Is there a way to store results of the foreach loop in variables? .i.e $a will contain book name, but if there are two books the value of $a gets overwritten by the next book?

Answer 1

$a= $output[] = '<td>  '.$bname.'</td>';

You’re re-intialising $a in every iteration of the loop.

All you need to do is set it right at the end of the function, with, say, an implode on $output

$a = implode ('\n', $output);

Or, if you don’t want the whole output, just use it as an array:

$a[] = $output[] = '<td>  '.$bname.'</td>';