Splitting array content to different divs in php - php

Question

I'm trying to create a dynamic navigation menu.
All allowed possibilities are defined in an array.
I'm trying to count the array, split it in half and print each half of the array into seperate div's. One on the left side of the screen and the other on the right side.
this is what i've got:
function menu_main() {
$count = count($GLOBALS['menu']);
$count = round($count / 2);
$menu_1 = array_slice($GLOBALS['menu'], 0, $count);
$menu_2 = array_slice($GLOBALS['menu'], $count++);
echo ' <div id="menu_1">' . "\n";
foreach($menu_1 as $page) {
echo ' <div class="menu_items">' . "\n";
echo ' <a class="menu" href="index.php?page=' . $page . '">' . $page . '</a> .' . "\n"; //Create menu left
echo ' </div>'. "\n";
}
echo ' </div>'. "\n";
echo ' <div id="menu_2">' . "\n";
foreach($menu_2 as $page) {
echo ' <div class="menu_items">' . "\n";
echo ' <a class="menu" href="index.php?page=' . $page . '">' . $page . '</a> .' . "\n"; //Create menu right
echo ' </div>'. "\n";
}
echo ' </div>'. "\n";
}
Is there a way to do this with itteration?
This works but it looks way to messy.

Answer 1

Ok, a couple of things:
$GLOBALS['menu'];
Why use $GLOBALS, or global $menu, for that matter? Why not pass what you need to the function?
function menuMain(array $menu)
{
$count = floor(count($menu)/2);
Would make a lot more sense. Also:
$menu_1 = array_slice($GLOBALS['menu'], 0, $count);
$menu_2 = array_slice($GLOBALS['menu'], $count++);//<== why the increment?
Why are you incrementing $count, only to then not use it anymore? You're post-incrementing the value, which means that if $count is 10, then the code above is evaluated to:
$menu_1 = array_slice($GLOBALS['menu'], 0, 10);
$menu_2 = array_slice($GLOBALS['menu'], 10);//10+1 happens AFTER the array_slice call is made
Also don't use "\n", because line-feeds are system dependent, PHP has a predefine constant for this reason: PHP_EOL. Use it (that's an order).
And don't concatenate what you echo, just comma-separate it:
echo 'foo', 'bar', PHP_EOL;
echo 'foo'.'bar'.PHP_EOL;
both may produce the same time, but the first version is faster, because the strings are pushed to the output, without first concatenating them into a new string.
Not that it matters here, because functions should return something, not echo it.
Anyway, your question: is there a way to do this with iteration? Yes, and you're already iterating (foreach iterates an array/object).
An alternative approach would be:
function mainMenu (array $menu)
{
$return =' <div id="menu_1">' . PHP_EOL;//functions shouldn't echo
//start with div 1
for($i = 0, $j= count($menu), $count = floor($j/2); $i<$j;++$i)
{
if ($i == $count)
{//reached half-way marker, close div 1, open div 2
$return .= '</div>'.PHP_EOL.'<div id="menu_2">'.PHP_EOL;
}
$return .= ' <div class="menu_items">' . PHP_EOL
.' <a class="menu" href="index.php?page=' . $menu[$i] . '">' . $menu[$i]
. '</a> .' .PHP_EOL;
}
return $return.'</div>';//close div2 and return
}
That should give you the exact same output as before, only it only uses a single loop, doesn't rely on globals, and doesn't echo things, so you call it like this:
$menu = array('your', 'global', 'array');
echo mainMenu($menu);//pass the array, echo what it returns

Answer 2

My solution if it helps.
$menu = array ("link1","link2","link3","link4","link5");
function menu_main()
{
global $menu;
$count = count($menu);
$menu_items = round($count / 2);
//initialize the divs for menus
$output_menu[0] = ' <div id="menu_1">' . "\n";
$output_menu[1] = ' <div id="menu_2">' . "\n";
$menu_count = 0;
foreach($menu as $link)
{
if ($menu_count < $menu_items)
{
//what enters in first menu
$output_menu[0] .= ' <div class="menu_items">' . "\n";
$output_menu[0] .= ' <a class="menu" href="index.php?page=' . $link . '">' . ucfirst($link) . '</a> .' . "\n"; //Create menu left
$output_menu[0] .= ' </div>'. "\n";
}
else
{
//what enters in second menu
$output_menu[1] .= ' <div class="menu_items">' . "\n";
$output_menu[1] .= ' <a class="menu" href="index.php?page=' . $link . '">' . ucfirst($link) . '</a> .' . "\n"; //Create menu left
$output_menu[1] .= ' </div>'. "\n";
}
$menu_count++;
}
//close the divs for menus
$output_menu[0] .= ' </div>'. "\n";
$output_menu[1] .= ' </div>'. "\n";
//return array with content for menus
return $output_menu;
}
$menu_main = menu_main(); // get content in variable
print_r($menu_main[0]); //print 1st menu
print_r($menu_main[1]); //print 2nd menu