how to implement a custom foreach template view method - php

Question

I was coding a TemplateView Class which is replacing #somevariable# placeholders with it's controller set correspondent. ViewHelpers are called via placeholders that simulate a function like #headerFiles()# for example.
The thing missing is a foreach loop definition like for example the smarty
{foreach from=$var key=index item=value} definition.
Until now I was iterating over a database object inside the controller and having a heredok or string concatenation assigned to the view. So there is a lot of html inside the controllers which I think should not be the controllers job.
I already implemented smarty into the app for testing and it's working fine - But when I decide to really use it I would have to change so many things like all partial templates would have to be .tpl files and all template directories would have to be merged ? or in one place and so on.
So my question is:
Are there any good examples or codesnippets I could use to implement a custom foreach loop method ? Before I have to change everything to use smarty. I also want to avoid using plain php like <?php foreach(): endforeach; ?>
UPDATE:
what concerns would one have going this direction ?
In a template:
#foreach array#
if($key !== 'fart'){
echo $val;
}
#endforeach#
class Foreacher {
private $template;
protected $array = array('fart' => 'poop', 'foo', 'bar');
public function __construct($template){
$this->template = file_get_contents($template);
}
public function parse(){
if(preg_match_all('/#foreach ([\w]+)#(.*?)#endforeach#/is', $this->template, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER)){
$var = $matches[0][1];
$freach = "<?php foreach(\$this->$var as \$key => \$val){";
$freach .= $matches[0][2];
$freach .= "} ?>";
$parsed = str_replace($matches[0][0], $freach, $this->template);
$this->render($parsed);
}
}
public function __get($var){
if(isset($this->$var)){
return $this->$var;
}
return null;
}
protected function render($string){
$tmp = tmpfile();
fwrite($tmp, $string);
fseek($tmp, 0);
ob_start();
$file = stream_get_meta_data($tmp);
include $file['uri'];
$data = ob_get_clean();
fclose($tmp);
echo $data;
}
}