Question

Ok this is sort of hard to explain but basically i wrote a PHP function that prints the a tags but needs some logic. Here is what i have so far

function print_a($element_name, $completed_system, $category_name){
    // hw_bottom
    // hw_top
    // hw_center
    $elements = array("hardware", "software", "payment", "service", "optional");
    $last_category = last_category($completed_system);
    if($last_category == $category_name){
        echo "<a class=\"{$element_name} hw_center lf\"></a>";
    }else{
        echo "<a class=\"{$element_name} hw_bottom lf\"></a>";
    }
}

and here is how i call it

print_a("hw-tab", $completed_system, 'hardware');
print_a("sw-tab", $completed_system, 'software');
print_a("pp-tab", $completed_system, 'payment');
print_a("serv-tab", $completed_system, 'service');
print_a("ou-tab", $completed_system, 'optional');

all seems ok but my logic is a bit off …basically what i need is that i print either one of the three classes hw_bottom, hw_center, or hw_top and the way my logic is working out now is that if the if condition is met i print hw_center …thats correct …what i need though is that if the if condition matches on anything after the hardware i need to turn all the previous to hw_top so for example:

if the if condition matched on payment then this is what i need

            <a class="hw-tab hw_top lf"></a>
            <a class="sw-tab hw_top lf"></a>
            <a class="pp-tab hw_center lf"></a>
            <a class="serv-tab hw_bottom lf"></a>
            <a class="ou-tab hw_bottom lf"></a>

As you can see all the ones after payment are hw_bottom and all the ones before are hw_top and it is hw_center….i know this is hard to explain…if anyone needs more info let ms know

UPDATE

HERE is the solution i came up with after reviewing all the answers

function print_a($completed_system){
  $topClass = true;
  $elements = array("hw-tab" => "hardware", "sw-tab" => "software", "pp-tab" => "payment", "serv-tab" => "service", "ou-tab" => "optional");
    $last_category = last_category($completed_system);
  foreach ($elements as $key => $element) {
        if($last_category == $element){
        echo "<a class=\"{$key} hw_center lf\"></a>";
        $topClass = false;
    } else { 
        if ($topClass) {
            echo "<a class=\"{$key} hw_top lf\"></a>";
        } else {
            echo "<a class=\"{$key} hw_bottom lf\"></a>";
        }

    }
    }
}

Answer 1

Maybe this code can help you (if I understand question):

<?php
$topClass = true;

$elements = array("hardware", "software", "payment", "service", "optional");
foreach ($elements as $index => $element) {
    if (floor(count($elements) / 2) == $index) {
        echo "<a class=\"{$element} hw_center lf\"></a>";
        $topClass = false;
    } else { 
        if ($topClass) {
            echo "<a class=\"{$element} hw_top lf\"></a>";
        } else {
            echo "<a class=\"{$element} hw_bottom lf\"></a>";
        }

    }
} 

EDIT: Update after your explain what you need.