PHP Count 1 too many on Array as it's 0 based? - php

Question

I've had this problem a few times now when for looping over an array item.
In this instance I'm generating all 2 letter combinations of the alphabet.
The code works (and I know there's a much easier way of doing it with 2 for loops, but I'm trying something different).
However I have to do count -1 as count() returns the number 26 for the array length, however the 26th item obviously doesn't exist as it's 0 based?
Is there not a version of count() that works on a zero-based basis?
<?php
$alphas = range('a', 'z');
$alphacount = count($alphas);
// Why do I have to do this bit here?
$alphaminus = $alphacount -1;
$a = 0;
for ($i=0;$i<$alphacount;$i++) {
$first = $alphas[$a];
$second = $alphas[$i];
if ($i === $alphaminus && $a < $alphaminus ) {
$i = 0;
$a ++;
}
echo "$first$second<br>";
}
?>
Without $alphaminus = $alphacount -1; I get undefined offset 26?

Answer 1

How about:
<?php
$alphas = range('a', 'z');
$alphacount = count($alphas);
$a = 0;
for ($i=0;$i<$alphacount;$i++) {
$first = $alphas[$a];
$second = $alphas[$i];
if ($i >= $alphacount && $a < $alphaminus ) {
$i = 0;
$a ++;
}
echo "$first$second<br>";
}
So you don't have to to -1 since you don't like it! :)
And how about:
$alphas = range('a', 'z');
for ($i = 0; $i < count($alphas); $i++) {
for ($a = 0; $a < count($alphas); $a++) {
echo "{$alphas[$i]}{$alphas[$a]}\n";
}
}
Or forget about arrays! This is more fun :)
array_walk($alphas, function ($a) use ($alphas) {
array_walk($alphas, function ($b) use ($a) {
print "$a$b\n";
});
});

Answer 2

The problem is that you reset $i to 0 in the loop; then on encountering the end of the loop $i is incremented, so the next run in the loop will be with $i = 1 instead of $i = 0.
That is, the next subrange of letters starts with (letter)b instead of (letter)a. (See your output: the next line after az is bb rather than ba.)
Solution: reset $i to -1 in the loop, then at the end it will run with the value 0 again.

Answer 3

You have 26 characters, but arrays in PHP are indexed from 0. So, indexes are 0, 1, ... 25.

Answer 4

count is 1-based and arrays created by range() are 0-based.
It means that:
$alphas[0] == a
$alphas[25] == z
$count($alphas) = 26; // there are 26 elements. First element is $alphas[0]

Answer 5

Why does it have to be so complicated? You could simply do
foreach ($alphas as $alpha)
{
foreach($alphas as $alpha2)
{
echo $alpha.$alpha2."<br>";
}
}
Note: It is mostly not a good idea to manipulate the loop counter variable inside the body of that very loop. You set $i to 0 on a certain condition. That could give you unexpected results, hence the reason why you have to navigate around it.