How to create variables and assign them values within a for each loop in PHP?

Question

I have for each loop which when looping outputs the items held in a basket array. This works great, but I want to store a few things per EACH item in session variables so I can use this information elsewhere, I am trying to create session variables inside the foreach loop, but of course the variables need to have different names every time it loops through a different item. I have researched how to create variables dynamically, I couldn't figure it out. This is something I have always felt would come in handy, but as it seems difficult I just avoid it, but now I want to know if its possible.

Here is my for each loop code, you can see inside the three session variables I want to create for each item in the basket:

foreach ($basketarray as $value)
{
    echo "<div id='basketitems'><br/>                                       
    ".$value['name']."<br/>
    ".$value['id']."<br/>
     &pound;".$value['price']."<br/>
     ".$value['size']."<br/>
    Quantity: ".$value['quantity']."<br/><br/>
    <img id='searchimage' src=".$value['picture']." width='210' height='250' /><br/>";

    $_SESSION['Bprodid'] = $value['id'];
    $_SESSION['Bprodquantity'] = $value['quantity'];
    $_SESSION['Bprodprice'] = $value['price'];

echo "<form action='deletefrombasket.php' name='basketdelete$items' id='basketdelete$items' method='POST'>

    <input type='submit' name='".$value['basketid']."' value='Remove' id='basketid' name='basketid'/>

    </form></div>";

$items++;
}
?>
    <div id='basketdetails'>
<?php

echo "<p>items ". number_format($basketitems)."</p>";
echo "<p>Total &pound; ".number_format($baskettotal, 2, '.', ',')."</p>";


if($basketitems && $baskettotal !=0)
{
    echo "<a  href='clear.php'>Empty Basket</a>";
    echo "<a  href='checkout.php'>Checkout</a>";
}

So it is possible to do something like this? I was trying to create varaible names by using a counter but I was unsuccessful.

I would appreciate any advice.

Thanks

John Conde · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-26 18:04:48Z

3

Put the values in arrays. Then use a counter that increments for each loop to sderver as the key for each value.

$counter = 0;
foreach ($basketarray as $value)
{
    // Code goes here

    $_SESSION['Bprodid'][$counter] = $value['id'];
    $_SESSION['Bprodquantity'][$counter]  = $value['quantity'];
    $_SESSION['Bprodprice']$counter[]  = $value['price'];

    // More code
    $counter++
}

To access each value use a for loop:

$size = count($_SESSION['Bprodid']);
for ($i = 0; $i < $size; $i++)
{
    echo $_SESSION['Bprodid'][$i] . "<br>\n";
    echo $_SESSION['Bprodquantity'][$i] . "<br>\n";
    echo $_SESSION['Bprodprice'][$i] . "<br><br>\n";
}

edited Apr 26, 2012 at 18:04

answered Apr 26, 2012 at 16:49

John Conde

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3 Comments

deucalion0 Over a year ago

Thanks for your help I have spent some time trying your example but it is not working. How do I use the session variables stored in another script, normally it can be set to a variable and the variable used in the script, should this still work the same way? Thanks!

John Conde Over a year ago

It should work the same way. To loop through the new session variables you would use a for loop. See my updated answer for an example.

deucalion0 Over a year ago

Thanks for your updated code, I was trying it out but its not working. I echo out $_SESSION['Bprodid'][$counter] and it displays 13, which are the two id's from the two items in the basket, 1 and 3. But when I echo $size, it tells me the value is 1, because when I was running the for loop it only echo's 11 which is id 1 as the first item is id1 and 1 for the quantity. I may be using it wrong, I ill keep trying, thank you!

jeroen · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-26 23:17:30Z

2

Your session variable can be a multi-dimensional array, so before the loop you can say:

$_SESSION['my_values'] = array();

And in the loop:

$_SESSION['my_values'][$value['id']]['Bprodquantity'] = $value['quantity'];
$_SESSION['my_values'][$value['id']]['price'] = $value['price'];
// etc.

Edit: To loop through all your values you can use:

foreach ($_SESSION['my_values'] as $key => $values)
{
  echo $key; // the ID of your product
  echo $values['quantity']; // the quantity
  echo $values['price']; // the price
}

edited Apr 26, 2012 at 23:17

answered Apr 26, 2012 at 16:50

jeroen

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3 Comments

deucalion0 Over a year ago

Thanks for your input, I am testing your solution, but I was wondering how can I get this to hold more than one value? Say I use this $_SESSION['my_values'][$value['id']]['price'] = $value['price']; inside the loop, then outside I echo this by using echo $_SESSION['my_values'][$value['id']]['price'], it only echo's the last value. In my basket I have 3 items for testing and they have three prices needing stored, this only echo's the last price. I am wondering how to use your solution correctly, am I missing something? Many thanks!!

jeroen Over a year ago

@deucalion0 The trick is [$value['id']]; in your $_SESSION['my_values'] you now have 3 values that you can access directly via their ID or you can loop through them using a foreach on the $_SESSION['my_values'] array. Every item you loop through is an array with the keys quantity and price (or whatever you add). I'll edit my answer.

deucalion0 Over a year ago

This was genius, I was instantly able to use the session array in my insert action script and it added all items to the table as required! Many many thanks for helping me out, I spent a lot of time on this!!! Cheers!

gen_Eric · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-26 16:56:15Z

1

Store you values into an array $products[$items]["prodId"] and so on and after the loop set your session variable to the array, $_SESSION["products"] = $products. You can then access the items with $_SESSION["products"][$itemNumber]["prodId"] and so forth.

edited Apr 26, 2012 at 16:56

gen_Eric

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answered Apr 26, 2012 at 16:52

Charlie Johnson

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Comments

Superbiji · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-26 17:17:36Z

1

You can use serialize() and unserialize() function to save whole array in session:

$_SESSION['sbasketarray'] = serialize($basketarray);

and in other script which need data:

if (isset ( $_SESSION['sbasketarray'] )) {
    $basketarray = unserialize  ( $_SESSION['sbasketarray'] );
}

answered Apr 26, 2012 at 17:17

Superbiji

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