Loop through and compare - php

Question

I have this code here the product tags can be animals, life or market. What I am trying to do is separate their list, but this code creates a new ul for every tag after animals and I do not know why, can anyone help?:
<?php
$versionvalues = get_the_terms( $product->id, 'product_tag');
if($versionvalues){
$previousTag = 'animals';
foreach ( $versionvalues as $versionvalue ) {
$currentTag = $versionvalue->name;
if($currentTag != $previousTag){
echo '</ul><ul class="products" style="text-align:center;">';
$previousTag = $currentTag;
}else{
$previousTag = $currentTag;
}
}
}
?>
Maybe wordpress doesn't allow me to put get_the_terms values into a variable. I did an echo of the $previousTag in the loop is keeps returning animals.
I have realized that is code is inside my woocommerce loop for my products, so $versionvales gets updated for each product and $previousTag will also reset to animals for each product.

Answer 1

You need to initialize $previousTag = 'animals' before entering the foreach loop, otherwise it will be reinitialized to equal 'animals' at the start of each iteration:
if($versionvalues){
$previousTag = 'animals';
foreach ( $versionvalues as $versionvalue ) {
.....
}
}

Answer 2

You reinitialized the $previousTag in each loop.
<?php
$versionvalues = get_the_terms( $product->id, 'product_tag');
if($versionvalues){
$previousTag = 'animals';
foreach ( $versionvalues as $versionvalue ) {
$currentTag = $versionvalue->name;
if($currentTag != $previousTag){
echo '</ul><ul class="products" style="text-align:center;">';
$previousTag = $currentTag;
} else {
$previousTag = $currentTag;
}
}
}
?>

Answer 3

just do not overwrite the variable each time
$versionvalues = get_the_terms( $product->id, 'product_tag');
if($versionvalues){
$previousTag = 'animals';
foreach ( $versionvalues as $versionvalue ) {
$currentTag = $versionvalue->name;
if($currentTag != $previousTag){
echo '</ul><ul class="products" style="text-align:center;">';
$previousTag = $currentTag;
}else{
$previousTag = $currentTag;
}
}
}
?>