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PHP Tutorial · Control Flow · Lesson 16 of 38

PHP Loops

Repeat code with while, do-while, for and foreach.

while and do-while

Example 1Try it yourself
<?php
$n = 1;
while ($n <= 3) {
    echo "while: $n\n";
    $n++;
}
$tries = 0;
do {
    $tries++;
} while ($tries < 0);
echo "do-while ran $tries time(s)\n";

Output

while: 1
while: 2
while: 3
do-while ran 1 time(s)

for

Example 2Try it yourself
<?php
for ($i = 10; $i > 0; $i -= 3) {
    echo $i, " ";
}
echo "\n";

Output

10 7 4 1

foreach

foreach is the loop you'll use most — it walks over arrays, optionally with keys:

Example 3Try it yourself
<?php
$fruits = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"];
foreach ($fruits as $fruit) {
    echo $fruit, "\n";
}
$prices = ["coffee" => 3.0, "tea" => 2.5];
foreach ($prices as $item => $price) {
    printf("%s costs $%.2f\n", $item, $price);
}
foreach ([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] as $n) {
    if ($n % 2) continue;
    if ($n > 4) break;
    echo "even: $n\n";
}

Output

apple
banana
cherry
coffee costs $3.00
tea costs $2.50
even: 2
even: 4

break exits a loop; continue skips to the next iteration. Modifying an array by reference in foreach ($arr as &$v) has a famous gotcha — see the foreach reference puzzle.

Test yourself

Which loop is designed for iterating over arrays?

  1. for
  2. while
  3. foreach
  4. do-while
Show answer

Answer: foreach

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