foreach loop syntax question

Question

In the "Including the Products Array" video Randy changes the foreach loop to include the syntax

<?php foreach($products as $product_id => $product) {

is the "=>" operator what assigns the keys to $product_id?

Answer 1 · 2014-06-26T03:39:27Z

June 26, 2014 3:39am

Eric,

The easiest way to think of this is the following:

foreach($products as $product) $products is the array and $product is the value of each in the array

foreach($products as $id => $product) $products is the array, $id is the array key, and $product is the value

$products = array(1111 => 'Pie', 2222 => 'Cheese', 3333 => 'Milk', 4444 => 'Butter');

foreach($products as $product) {
   echo $product.',';
}

This will output: Pie, Cheese, Milk, Butter

foreach($products as $id => $product) {
   echo $id.' is '.$product.',';
}

This will output: 1111 is Pie, 2222 is Cheese, 3333 is Milk, 4444 is Butter.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

Answer 2 · 2014-06-25T17:35:58Z

June 25, 2014 5:35pm

$product_id holds the $product item, this is called an associative array.

$array = ['key1' => 'item1', 'key2' => 'item2'];

you could say echo $array['key1'];

$product_id => $product

in this case $product_id is the key so he also wants the key from the array and use it in the foreach loop.

Answer 3 · 2014-06-26T12:18:30Z

June 26, 2014 12:18pm

Thanks guys!

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