php foreach generating trash - php

Question

I have here a quite complicated loop what I would like to modify while is not really working as I expected. The problem is: my if statements else condition is generating trash and I don't really know where the problem comes
<div id="container">
<?php include 'header.php';
foreach ($vars as $item):
if (is_array($item['productItems'])):?>
<div class="product_box">
<h4>
<?php echo $item['title']?>
</h4>
<?php foreach($item['productItems'] as $products):?>
<?php foreach($products as $key=>$product):?>
<div class="product">
<div class="image_holder">
<a href="<?php echo $product['image']['medium'];?>" class="preview">
<img src="<?php echo $product['image']['small'];?>"
alt="gallery thumbnail" title="" />
</a>
<?php foreach($product['trackingLinks'] as $key=>$trackinglink): ?>
<a href="<?php echo $trackinglink[0]['ppc']?>"> <span><?php echo $product['name'];?>
</span>
</a>
</div>
<h5>
<?php echo 'Preise: '. $product['price'].' '.$product['currency'];?>
</h5>
<span><?php echo 'Versand Kosten: '.$product['shippingCosts'].' EUR';?>
</span>
<p>
<?php echo (substr($product['descriptionLong'], 0,150 )).'...mehr';?>
</p>
<a class="shopping_button"
href="<?php echo $trackinglink[0]['ppc']?>">zum Shop</a>
</div>
<?php endforeach ?>
<?php endforeach ?>
<?php endforeach ?>
<div class="ajax_bar">
<select id="ajax_call" size="1" name="Weitere Produkte">
<option value='50'>Weitere Produkte</option>
<option value='100'>weitere 100</option>
<option value='150'>weitere 150</option>
</select>
</div>
</div>
<?php else: ?>
<div class="text_box">
<h2>
<?php echo $item['title'];?>
</h2>
<p>
<?php echo $item['text'];?>
</p>
</div>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endforeach; ?>
<?php include 'footer.php';?>
</div>

Answer 1

I'm going to make a wild guess here and say that this is because you don't escape your output using htmlspecialchars or htmlentities.
If you're not sure what's inside the for-loop, use this nifty construct to debug on page:
echo '<pre>', htmlspecialchars(print_r($vars, true)), '</pre>';
It also helps to look at the page source instead; this usually gives vital clues as to why your page layout is so messed up.
Update
Okay got it! It's because of this:
<?php else: ?>
<div class="text_box">
<h2>
<?php echo $item['title'];?>
</h2>
<p>
<?php echo $item['text'];?>
</p>
The $item is a string here, and $item['title'] is understood by PHP as $item[0] which is the first character of $item :)