Using a PHP array inside of a PHP function?

Question

I am trying to figure out how I can use a PHP array inside of a PHP function. I was able to use string replace to replace {count} with the $counter variable inside of the function. But I am unable to do the same thing to a array that is inside the string. I tried using $i from the For loop to select the arrays index, but that did not work. I also tried using {count} for the array index and then used string replace to replace it with the $counter variable. That did not work also. If anyone can point in the right direction, I would apperciate it. Thank you for your time.

<?php
    function repeatHTML($repeatCount, $repeatString){
        $counter = 1;
        for ($i = 1; $i <= $repeatCount; $i++) {
            $replacedRepeatString = str_replace('{count}', $counter, $repeatString);
            echo $replacedRepeatString;
            $counter++;
        }   
    }

    $titleContent = array('orange', 'apple', 'grape', 'watermelon');

    repeatHTML(4, '<div class="image-{count}">'.$titleContent[$i].'</div>'); 
?>

Output Example:

<div class="image-1">orange</div>
<div class="image-2">apple</div>
<div class="image-3">grape</div>
<div class="image-4">watermelon</div>

Answer 1

I don't know why would you need this, but you can do something like this:

function repeatHTML( $repeatHTML, $repeatArray ) {
    foreach ( $repeatArray as $key => $repeatValue ) {
        $replacedRepeatString = str_replace('{count}', $key, $repeatHTML);
        $replacedRepeatString = str_replace('{value}', $repeatValue, $repeatHTML);
        echo $replacedRepeatString;
    }
}

// 1 => only if you want to start from 1, instead of 0
$titleContent = array( 1 => 'orange', 'apple', 'grape', 'watermelon' );

repeatHTML( '<div class="image-{count}">{value}</div>', $titleContent );

If you want to use an array in a function, you have to set it as a separate attribute.

Now you don't need to use the $repeatCount attribute, if you want to go through te entire array.

EDIT:

You can also make your own "template" by combining HTML and PHP.

<?php
$content = array( 1 => 'orange', 'apple', 'grape', 'watermelon' );

foreach ( $content as $key => $value )
{
    ?> <div class="image-<?=$key?>"><?=$value?></div> <?php
}

I would recommend using an existing template engine, though. This code is not as clear and it could become really messy.

Answer 2

I think you are having more problems in your code. You do not need to replace anything. You can define and call your function like this:

function repeatHTML($arr){ // add array as parameter
   $content = ""; // initialize variable
   $i = 0; // initialize variable
   foreach($arr as $k=>$n){ // loop through array
     $content .= '<div class="image-'.$i.'">'.$n.'</div>'; // fill variable with html
     $i++; // increment counter variable
   }
   return $content;
}

$titleContent = array(0=>'orange', 1=>'apple', 2=>'grape', 3=>'watermelon'); // fill array
echo repeatHTML($titleContent); // call function

Answer 3

I cleaned it up a bit and wrote a general function to help you with arrays. Please note that I agree this may not necessarily be the best option - but it does solve your problem the way you wanted it to.

function repeatHTML($count, $string, $array){
    foreach ($array as $index => $value) {
        echo str_replace(['{count}', '{value}'], [$index + 1, $value], $string);
    }
}

$titleContent = array('orange', 'apple', 'grape', 'watermelon');
repeatHTML(4, '<div class="image-{count}">{value}</div>', $titleContent);

This outputs <div class="image-1">orange</div><div class="image-2">apple</div><div class="image-3">grape</div><div class="image-4">watermelon</div> , you could easily add eg a newline or a <br> in the echo statement if you need a blank line.

If you need any help explaining how the function works, please let me know.