Do something Inside a PHP foreach Loop Only Once

Question

I am using a foreach loop to create a brands page for our Magento store. In the loop every 5 items are put into an un-ordered list. They are also split up by letters of the alphabet (A - D, E - H, I - L, M - P, Q - U, V - Z). I need to insert a header before each set of lists. For example:

<h2>A - D</h2>
<ul>
    <li>Brand 1</li>
    <li>Brand 2</li>
    <li>Brand 3</li>
    <li>Brand 4</li>
    <li>Brand 5</li>
</ul>

This is how I am getting the brands and splitting them up:

<?php foreach($brands as $brand) : ?>
    <?php $name = $brand->getName(); ?>

    <?php if((substr($name, 0, 1) == 'A') || (substr($name, 0, 1) == 'B') ||
    (substr($name, 0, 1) == 'C') || (substr($name, 0, 1) == 'D')) : ?>

        <?php if($count % 5 == 0) : ?>
            </ul><ul>
        <?php endif; ?>

        <li><a href="<?php echo $brand->getUrl(); ?>">
            <?php 
                $id = $brand->getId(); 
                $imageUrl = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($id)->getThumbnailUrl();
            ?>
            <img src="<?php echo $imageUrl; ?>" alt="<?php echo $name; ?>">
        </a></li>

        <?php $count++; ?>
    <?php endif; ?>
<?php endforeach; ?>

I thought I could insert the header into the right place by counting how many brands there are for each set of 4 or 5 letters then doing the same as what I have done to put in the 's. But it doesn't work.

Is there any way I can maybe tell the header to insert only on the first run of the loop?

Answer 1

Try this

$ascci_val =  ord( strtolower(sub_str($name, 0, 1)) );
if( ($ascci_val >= 97) && ($ascci_val <= 100) ){ 
  // brand name stats with a letter between A-D / a-d
}