while loop first output a different class - php

Question

I use a slider from codyhouse.co and integrate it in wordpress. My goal is to count the slides and output a navigation where the first navigation bullet gets the class selected.
The part of counting slides and outputting the navigation works. But i don't know how to to setup the code to get the first bullet in the navigation the class selected. This is my post loop:
while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post();
<li if($counter==0) { echo 'class="selected"'; $counter++; }>
<div class="inner-hero">
$titleslider = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'textslider', true); ?>
<h2>echo $titleslider; ?></h2>
</div>
the_post_thumbnail();
</li>
$slider = $my_query->post_count;
if ($slider > 1) {
while ($i < $slider) {
$output .= "<li class=''>" ."<a href='#0'>" . "</a></li>";
$i++;
}
}
endwhile;
While loop in the post loop:
while ($i < $slider) {
$output .= "<li class=''>" ."<a href='#0'>" . "</a></li>";
$i++;
I use the class selected also for the slides, that works fine.
So what i did is, count the slides, check if there are more than one slide, if this is true show the navigation. But my next goal is to get the first li in the navigation the class selected in the while loop.
naviagtion outside the post loop.
<ul class="cd-slider-navigation">
echo $output;
</ul>

Answer 1

Suppose you have defined class 'test1' for the selected one and class 'test' for the other links.
Before your while loop starts, you'll have to define a variable named $j equal to 1.
Then the code goes here,
$j=1;
while ($i < $slider) {
if($j==1)
$output .= "<li class='test".$j."'>" ."<a href='#0'>" . "</a></li>";
else
$output .= "<li class='test'>" ."<a href='#0'>" . "</a></li>";
$i++;
$j++;
}