Question

The problem I’m having is that PHP isn’t handling my continue correctly. My code is as follows:

$count = -1;
foreach ($lines as $item){
    $count++;

    if ($item == ""){
        continue;  // don't process empty items
    }
    if ($count > 0){
        echo '-not the first line-';
    }

    switch ($item){
        case "item1":
            echo "item 1 found";
        break;
    }
}

The if ($count > 0) part executes regardless of where the continue is placed before it, but the switch executes as expected.

If I remove the if ($count > 0) and place it inside the switch, it executes as expected:

    switch ($item){
        case "item1":
            if ($count > 0){
                echo '-not the first line-';  // executes as expected
            }
            echo "item 1 found";
        break;
    }

Is this normal? Thanks

Answer 1

The if ($count > 0) part executes regardless of where the continue is placed before it, but the switch executes as expected.

Your expectation is that it doesn’t execute? You’re setting $count to “-1”, then increment it with $count++. In my book, $count would then be 0, which is not greater than 0, which means the if condition is true?

EDIT: based on the information I got from the comment, you’re not using the contents of the first line, and you’re using $count merely to keep track of the number of iterations done? If so; what’s wrong with the following:

<?php

$lines = array(
    'first',
    'foo',
    'bar',
    'baz',
    'item1'
);

$first = array_shift( $lines ); // remove it if you don't use it?
$lines = array_filter( $lines ); // remove empty lines.
$count = 0; // set count to 0, although you could just count( $lines ) as well.

foreach ($lines as $item){
    $count ++;
    echo '-not the first line-'."\n";

    if( $item === 'item1' ) {
        echo "item 1 found\n";
    }
}