Question

I will start saying with I’m really a noob on PHP and I need to solve a problem, I know the logic, however in the syntaxis I’m dead.

Here is the case.

I need to create a wordpress loop, which will display images with a span class with 3 different colors, 1 per loop, so it goes, 0 = green, 1 = blue, 2 = pink.

Since I have 3 colors a X numbers of outputs, I think about creating an array from 0 to 2, an assign a value according the colors I described, then create a conditional that will go as, if i > 2, then i = 0.

With this I will just echo the array value on my span class, that should do the trick.

What I need help with is creating the syntaxys for this, so far, this is what I have:

<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); $i = 0 ?>
 <?php 
    $array = array(
      0 => 'green', 
      1 => 'blue', 
      2 => 'pink',
    ); 
  ?>
 <span class="<?php echo $array ?>;">Title</span>

 <?php
  $i++;
 ?>
 <?if ($i > 2) { $i=0; } endif; ?> 
<?php endwhile; ?> 

I’m missing the part where I should compare the counter i with the array.

I would appreciated any help!

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

There were a few problems with this code (as well as some suggestions).

• You were defining $i = 0; inside the while loop meaning it was always == 0
• You are trying to print the $array instead of one item

How to fix:

• Move $i = 0; outside the while loop (so it’s defined before the loop)
• Use echo $array[$i] to echo the item id you’re looking for
• Use the modulo operator to get the remainder of $i / 3 and use that as your index

You could also

• Define the array on one line $colors = array('green', 'blue', 'pink'); which will behave the same – this works as PHP uses a default index starting at 0
• Use variables like $colors instead of $array to make it clearer what’s going on
• Reduce the amount of <?php tags to keep things clearer
• Define the array (now called $colors) outside of the loop

See the complete code below

<?php 
  $colors = array(
    0 => 'green', 
    1 => 'blue', 
    2 => 'pink',
  ); 

  $i = 0;
  while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post();    
?>
<span class="<?php echo $colors[$i % 3] ?>;">Title</span>
<?php
  $i++;
  endwhile;
?>

And a further simplification

<?php 
  $colors = array('green', 'blue',  'pink'); 
  $i = 0;
  while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post();    
?>
    <span class="<?php echo $colors[$i % 3] ?>;">Title</span>
<?php
    $i++;
  endwhile;
?>