break out of if and foreach - php

Question

I have a foreach loop and an if statement. If a match is found i need to ultimately break out of the foreach.
foreach ($equipxml as $equip) {
$current_device = $equip->xpath("name");
if ($current_device[0] == $device) {
// Found a match in the file.
$nodeid = $equip->id;
<break out of if and foreach here>
}
}

Answer 1

if is not a loop structure, so you cannot "break out of it".
You can, however, break out of the foreach by simply calling break. In your example it has the desired effect:
$device = "wanted";
foreach($equipxml as $equip) {
$current_device = $equip->xpath("name");
if ( $current_device[0] == $device ) {
// found a match in the file
$nodeid = $equip->id;
// will leave the foreach loop immediately and also the if statement
break;
some_function(); // never reached!
}
another_function(); // not executed after match/break
}
Just for completeness for others who stumble upon this question looking for an answer..
break takes an optional argument, which defines how many loop structures it should break. Example:
foreach (['1','2','3'] as $a) {
echo "$a ";
foreach (['3','2','1'] as $b) {
echo "$b ";
if ($a == $b) {
break 2; // this will break both foreach loops
}
}
echo ". "; // never reached!
}
echo "!";
Resulting output:
1 3 2 1 !

Answer 2

foreach($equipxml as $equip) {
$current_device = $equip->xpath("name");
if ( $current_device[0] == $device ) {
// found a match in the file
$nodeid = $equip->id;
break;
}
}
Simply use break. That will do it.

Answer 3

A safer way to approach breaking a foreach or while loop in PHP is to nest an incrementing counter variable and if conditional inside of the original loop. This gives you tighter control than break; which can cause havoc elsewhere on a complicated page.
Example:
// Setup a counter
$ImageCounter = 0;
// Increment through repeater fields
while ( condition ):
$ImageCounter++;
// Only print the first while instance
if ($ImageCounter == 1) {
echo 'It worked just once';
}
// Close while statement
endwhile;

Answer 4

For those of you landing here but searching how to break out of a loop that contains an include statement use return instead of break or continue.
<?php
for ($i=0; $i < 100; $i++) {
if (i%2 == 0) {
include(do_this_for_even.php);
}
else {
include(do_this_for_odd.php);
}
}
?>
If you want to break when being inside do_this_for_even.php you need to use return. Using break or continue will return this error: Cannot break/continue 1 level. I found more details here