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PHP

Posted by Andrew McCombs
Andrew McCombs
4,309 Points

Simple IF EMPTY Condition

The following code contains a foreach loop that displays a list of ice cream flavor recommendations. It works great when the $recommendations array has at least one element, but we end up with some extra HTML when we don't have any recommendations. Write a conditional that makes sure the unordered list tags and the foreach loop get executed only if the array has at least one element.

Link to the challenge - http://teamtreehouse.com/library/enhancing-a-simple-php-application-2/adding-search-controller-view/accounting-for-empty-results

Starting Point of the Challenge

<?php

    $recommendations = array();

?><html>
<body>

    <h1>Flavor Recommendations</h1>

    <ul>
        <?php foreach($recommendations as $flavor) { ?>
            <li><?php echo $flavor; ?></li>
        <?php } ?>
    </ul>

</body>
</html>

My Code - Got an error message, it didnt work why?

<?php

    $recommendations = array();

?><html>
<body>

    <h1>Flavor Recommendations</h1>

      <?php if (empty($recommendations)) { ?>
        <ul>
            <?php foreach($recommendations as $flavor) { ?>
                <li><?php echo $flavor; ?></li>
            <?php } ?>
        </ul>
      <?php } ?>

</body>
</html>

2 Answers

Jeff Busch
Jeff Busch
19,287 Points

Hi Andrew,

We want the loop to run only if the array is not empty (!empty).

Jeff

Andrew McCombs
Andrew McCombs
4,309 Points

I keep over looking the small things...

Dai Phong
Dai Phong
20,395 Points
Dai Phong
Dai Phong
20,395 Points

My suggest is using count function to count the array

 <?php

     $recommendations = array();

 ?><html>
 <body>

     <h1>Flavor Recommendations</h1>

       <?php if (count($recommendations) > 0) { ?>
         <ul>
             <?php foreach($recommendations as $flavor) { ?>
                 <li><?php echo $flavor; ?></li>
             <?php } ?>
         </ul>
       <?php } ?>

 </body>
 </html>
Andrew McCombs
Andrew McCombs
4,309 Points

I have to use if (empty(XXXX) {}

Dai Phong
Dai Phong
20,395 Points

If you use empty function you must write if(!empty(xxx)) to check if it is not empty