Question

I have the following structure :

<?php
  $i = 0;
  foreach ($users as $user) {
    $i++;
    $string = '<span>The number is $i</span>';
    $string = preg_replace('/\<span.*?\/>$/e','',$string);
    echo $string;
  }
?>

It appends the $string the number of times foreach loop iterate whereas i just want it to display one time as The number is 4 at the end of the loop. preg_replace works if outside of the loop. How can i echo the output one time and delete rest. I need to do it within the loop and not outside it.

Answer 1

This will do it:

$i = 0;
foreach ($users as $user) {
   $i++;
   if ($i == count($users)) {
      $string = '<span>The number is $i</span>';
      $string = preg_replace('/\<span.*?\/>$/e','',$string);
      echo $string;
   }
}

Though, you might want to consider other options for achieving this. You may maintain your $i variable and output it right after the loop, as this is what this does exactly.

Or, you could just echo "<span>The number is ".count($users)."</span>";.
In my answer, I assumed you totally can’t change this things, and that your problem is more complicated than this simple preg_replace. If it’s not, consider simplifying things.