Loop Array in PHP - php

Question

how to loop an array if the data is 1 or more than 1?
I tried it with
foreach($array['bGeneral'] as $item) {
echo $item['bItem'];
}
but for arrays that have 1 data an error

Answer 1

Basically you need to check if the first element of $array['bGeneral'] is an array or a data value, and if so, process the data differently. You could try something like this:
if (isset($array['bGeneral']['bItem'])) {
// only one set of values
$item = $array['bGeneral'];
// process item
}
else {
// array of items
foreach ($array['bGeneral'] as $item) {
// process item
}
}
To avoid duplication of code, you will probably want to put the item processing code in a function.
Alternatively you could create a multi-dimensional array when you only have one value and then continue processing as you do with multiple values:
if (isset($array['bGeneral']['bItem'])) {
$array['bGeneral'] = array($array['bGeneral']);
}
foreach ($array['bGeneral'] as $item) {
// process item
}

Answer 2

Don't forget recursion - sometimes it is a best choise :
function scan_data($data, $path = null) {
if (!is_array($data))
echo "{$path} : {$data}\n";
else
foreach ($data as $k => $v)
scan_data($v, $path . '/' . $k);
}
$data = [
['a' => 1, 'b' => 2],
['a' => ['c' => 3, 'd' => 4], 'b' => 5],
['a' => 1, 'b' => ['e' => ['f' => 1, 'g' => 2], 'h' => 6] ]
];
scan_data($data);
Output:
/0/a : 1
/0/b : 2
/1/a/c : 3
/1/a/d : 4
/1/b : 5
/2/a : 1
/2/b/e/f : 1
/2/b/e/g : 2
/2/b/h : 6