foreach loops completely lost

I know this question is old but I don't see any solid answers to some of the original questions, so I will try for future readers:

One thing to understand is that when the PHP tag opens, the server steps out of HTML world and into PHP world. Once in PHP world, all the PHP code will be run until reaching the closing PHP tag. As soon as it hits that closing tag, PHP world PAUSES, even if it is in the middle of a loop. Once out of PHP world, any HTML from that point on will just be displayed to the web browser as usual, until you hit another opening PHP tag. With that new opening tag, the server steps back into PHP world and RESUMES exactly where you left off. So in this case, if you previously exited PHP while in the middle of a loop, you now resume the PHP process smack in the middle of the loop. It reaches the end of the loop, but because PHP knows the loop is not over (there are more items in the array to loop over), the PHP process jumps BACK to the first set of PHP tags so it can iterate through the second, third, etc. items in the array. Now the process is back up at the first set of PHP tags, where the foreach() loop is initially declared. Then it will hit the closing PHP tag AGAIN, return back to HTML world, then hitting the second opening PHP tag AGAIN ... repeating this process until the looping conditions are finally over, then it will move on to the rest of your page.

As for the distinction between $social_icons and $icon ... In the foreach() statement, the first argument $social_icons is stating which variable to loop over. In this case, $social_icons is an array. You're basically saying "for each item in this array, do something". The loop will step into the first item in the array and pass that SPECIFIC ITEM down into the loop as a variable. This is a local variable that is only relevant within the loop. In this case we name that variable $icon. So WITHIN THE LOOP, any time you reference $icon, you're referencing whatever item within $social_icons the loop happens to be iterating over at that particular moment. Once that pass of the loop is over, it starts again, moves to the next item within the $social_icons array, and passes that new item into the loop, again as $icon. So each time it passes through the loop, it's setting $icon to something different, and printing out a new set of HTML.

When the small PHP tags are opened within the HTML to display the icon, remember that it is resuming PHP exactly where it left off, which happens to be within the foreach loop, meaning $icon is a valid variable at that moment and will reference the string that has been passed down from $social_icons.

I prefer to think of the PHP and HTML as two separate worlds layered on top of each other, but only one can be actively "turned on" at any given moment. So when you step into PHP, HTML world goes on pause, then when you exit PHP, PHP world goes on pause, even in the middle of a loop, and HTML world becomes active. PHP will wait until you re-enter PHP world to resume exactly where you left it. So it's like a dance, bouncing back and forth between the two layers, and you have to think about how each layer will control the flow of data.

is there a way i can get my own coding team to help build these awesome programs i have in mind. The only part im scared about is people stealing my ideas. Im perfectly fine giving credit where credit is due for everyone but I do not want someone who is pro at coding to take my idea and make it their own and possibly tweaking it to make it better while im stuck still trying to get my idea into code.

yeah thanks for answering. i actually just quit my job to go full time into learning web development. I didnt know what html was until about two weeks ago. Ever since then ive been spending about 10 hours a day. pretty much addicted anyways, this is the 2nd time going through html css php js as i did the beginners courses before with code academy and udacity. I actually understood all the videos up until that video and usually the challenges help me clarify but this challenge was way easier than what he was explain for that particular situation. I have a lot of ideas for apps and websites and businesses but I cant seem to put the coding to my vision especially with me being all noobish right now. i try to incorporate what i learn into my projects if i feel that it is a good fit for them. Im kind of stuck right now going from a beginner to intermediate . this is what was in the challenge that i understand

<?php 
   $names = array('Mike', 'Chris', 'Jane', 'Bob');
  foreach($names as $name){echo " ". $name;}
  ?>

i just dont get the middle part of the other one with the <span>class"icon<php echo icon then end quotes. it messed up all my prior logic. combined with the css... because he shows one image all the icons together then with css he just moves the background position to show another part of the image. . you can see where it gets confusing for a noob when he adds little unfamiliar constructs.

unless the function hello() automatically when printing out connects hello with hello and u can put anything in the brackets and it will assume its hello function?

heres the code i dont get from the other explanation. Do you understand every byte and its logic?

<ul class="social"> <?php foreach($social_icons as $icon){ ?>

      <li><a href=""><span class="icon <?php echo $icon ?>"></span></a></li>
    <?php
    }

    ?>
  </ul>

<span class="icon '.$icon.'"></span>       

can you explain this part you typed please. thats the confusing part. like the span does what? the dots before and after the variable icon? what the first icon does and the 2nd variable icon does?

can we directly use $social_icons rather than $icon,?>