While loop in php not finishing loop - php

Question

I'm working on this code and trying to get it to only pull 4 entries from the repository and it keeps pulling all of my entries.
<?php
while ( $i < 4) {
foreach ($churchEvents->getResults() as $churchEvent){
?>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td> <?php echo $churchEvent->getStructuredText('church-events.event-title')->asText(); ?>
</td>
<td class="cuntd" style="vertical-align: middle;">
<?php echo $churchEvent->getDate('church-events.event-start-date')->asDateTime()->format('l, F j, Y'); ?>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<?php $i++; } } ?>

Answer 1

You have two loops, but there is no reason to have two. The inner one (foreach) already iterates through all the $churchEvents, so the outer one (while) will not make it do less.
Remove the outer while loop and the $i++;, and make the inner loop only loop over the first four elements.
For this, you can use the => syntax in the foreach statement to get the value of $i, and then add an if to exit the loop:
<tbody>
<?php
foreach ($churchEvents->getResults() as $i => $churchEvent){
if ($i >= 4) break;
?>
<tr>
<td> <?= $churchEvent->getStructuredText('church-events.event-title')->asText() ?>
</td>
<td class="cuntd" style="vertical-align: middle;">
<?= $churchEvent->getDate('church-events.event-start-date')->asDateTime()->format('l, F j, Y') ?>
</td>
</tr>
<?php
}
?>
</tbody>
Note that tbody should not be generated more than once, so it should stay out of the loop.

Answer 2

Because while is outside foreach.
while ( $i < 4) {
foreach ($churchEvents->getResults() as $churchEvent){
At the start of foreach try if combine with break.
//you don't need while here anymore
foreach ($churchEvents->getResults() as $churchEvent){
if ($i >= 4) {
break;
}

Answer 3

The method names are distinctive enough to make a guess what library/api you're using: (http://prismicio.github.io/php-kit/namespaces/Prismic.html), right?
The ->getResults() method returns an array. So, there are several options; here are some of them:
Using an SPL LimitIterator:
<?php
// only fetching the first four entires
$iter = new LimitIterator( new ArrayIterator($churchEvents->getResults()), 0, 4);
foreach ($iter as $churchEvent) { ?>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td> <?php echo $churchEvent->getStructuredText('church-events.event-title')->asText(); ?></td>
<td class="cuntd" style="vertical-align: middle;"><?php echo $churchEvent->getDate('church-events.event-start-date')->asDateTime()->format('l, F j, Y'); ?></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<?php
}
Using array_slice() to get the first four elements and then iterate over those four:
<?php
// copying the first four element of the array
$arr = array_slice($churchEvents->getResults(), 0, 4);
foreach ($arr as $churchEvent) { ?>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td> <?php echo $churchEvent->getStructuredText('church-events.event-title')->asText(); ?></td>
<td class="cuntd" style="vertical-align: middle;"><?php echo $churchEvent->getDate('church-events.event-start-date')->asDateTime()->format('l, F j, Y'); ?></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<?php
}
(prefered option:) Only request four items/fragements:
I'm not familiar with the api but at the very least there's the method pageSize(integer $pageSize) : \Prismic\SearchForm which sets the resultset size for the pagination. Maybe you can even limit the number of results in the response with some predicates or a limit-clause or something, i.e. only request what you really need.