While loops don't require a code block (statement).
<?php
while( ++$i < 10 ); // look ma, no brackets!
echo $i; // 10
?>
while
(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)
Los bucles while
son el tipo más sencillo de bucle en
PHP. Se comportan igual que su contrapartida en C. La forma básica
de una sentencia while
es:
while (expr) sentencia
El significado de una sentencia while
es simple. Le
dice a PHP que ejecute las sentencias anidadas, tanto
como la expresión while
se evalúe como
true
. El valor de la expresión es verificado
cada vez al inicio del bucle, por lo que incluso si este valor
cambia durante la ejecución de las sentencias anidadas, la ejecución
no se detendrá hasta el final de la iteración (cada vez que PHP ejecuta
las sentencias contenidas en el bucle es una iteración). A veces, si la
expresión while
se evalúa como
false
desde el principio, las sentencias
anidadas no se ejecutarán ni siquiera una vez.
Al igual que con la sentencia if
, se pueden agrupar
varias instrucciones dentro del mismo bucle while
rodeando un grupo de sentencias con corchetes, o
utilizando la sintaxis alternativa:
while (expr): sentencias ... endwhile;
Los siguientes ejemplos son idénticos y ambos presentan los números del 1 al 10:
<?php
/* ejemplo 1 */
$i = 1;
while ($i <= 10) {
echo $i++; /* el valor presentado sería
$i antes del incremento
(post-incremento) */
}
/* ejemplo 2 */
$i = 1;
while ($i <= 10):
echo $i;
$i++;
endwhile;
?>
While loops don't require a code block (statement).
<?php
while( ++$i < 10 ); // look ma, no brackets!
echo $i; // 10
?>
The example below displays the numbers from 1 to 5:
<?php
$x = 1;
while($x <= 5) {
echo "The number is: $x <br>";
$x++;
}
?>
This example counts to 100 by tens:
<?php
$x = 0;
while($x <= 100) {
echo "The number is: $x <br>";
$x+=10;
}
?>
<?php
$i = -1;
while ($i) {
echo $i++;
}
?>
outputs "-1" then stops because "0" (zero) gets evaluated as FALSE.
this demonstrates why it's important for a PDO statement fetch-ing a column value inside a while-loop to test explicitly for FALSE.
simple pyramid pattern program using while loop
<?php
$i=1;
while($i<=5)
{
$j=1;
while($j<=$i)
{
echo"*  ";
$j++;
}
echo"<br>";
$i++;
}
?>
// or alternatively you can use:
<?php
$i=1;
while($i<=5):
$j=1;
while($j<=$i):
echo"*  ";
$j++;
endwhile;
echo"<br>";
$i++;
endwhile;
?>
Just a note about using the continue statement to forego the remainder of a loop - be SURE you're not issuing the continue statement from within a SWITCH case - doing so will not continue the while loop, but rather the switch statement itself.
While that may seem obvious to some, it took a little bit of testing for me, so hopefully this helps someone else.
I find it often clearer to set a simple flag ($finished) to false at the start of the loop, and have the program set it to true when it's finished doing whatever it's trying to do. Then the code is more self-documenting: WHILE NOT FINISHED keep going through the loop. FINISHED EQUALS TRUE when you're done. Here's an example. This is the code I use to generate a random filename and ensure that there is not already an existing file with the same name. I've added very verbose comments to it to make it clear how it works:
<?php
$finaldir = 'download';
$finished = false; // we're not finished yet (we just started)
while ( ! $finished ): // while not finished
$rn = rand(); // random number
$outfile = $finaldir.'/'.$rn.'.gif'; // output file name
if ( ! file_exists($outfile) ): // if file DOES NOT exist...
$finished = true; // ...we are finished
endif;
endwhile; // (if not finished, re-start WHILE loop)
?>
At the end of the while (list / each) loop the array pointer will be at the end.
This means the second while loop on that array will be skipped!
You can put the array pointer back with the reset($myArray) function.
example:
<?php
$myArray=array('aa','bb','cc','dd');
while (list ($key, $val) = each ($myArray) ) echo $val;
reset($myArray);
while (list ($key, $val) = each ($myArray) ) echo $val;
?>
<?php
// test While Vs For php 5.6.17
$t1 = microtime(true);
$a=0;
while($a++ <= 1000000000);
$t2 = microtime(true);
$x1 = $t2 - $t1;
echo PHP_EOL,' > while($a++ <= 100000000); : ' ,$x1, 's', PHP_EOL;
$t3 = microtime(true);
for($a=0;$a <= 1000000000;$a++);
$t4 = microtime(true);
$x2 = $t4 - $t3;
echo PHP_EOL,'> for($a=0;$a <= 100000000;$a++); : ' ,$x2, 's', PHP_EOL;
$t5 = microtime(true);
$a=0; for(;$a++ <= 1000000000;);
$t6 = microtime(true);
$x3 = $t6 - $t5;
echo PHP_EOL,' > $a=0; for(;$a++ <= 100000000;); : ' , $x3, 's', PHP_EOL;
//> while($a++ <= 100000000); = 18.509671926498s
//
//> for($a=0;$a <= 100000000;$a++); = 25.450572013855s
//
//> $a=0; for(;$a++ <= 100000000;); = 22.614907979965s
// ===================
//> while($a++ != 100000000); : 18.204656839371s
//
//> for($a=0;$a != 100000000;$a++); : 25.025605201721s
//
//> $a=0; for(;$a++ != 100000000;); : 22.340576887131s
// ===================
//> while($a++ < 100000000); : 18.383454084396s
//
//> for($a=0;$a < 100000000;$a++); : 25.290743112564s
//
//> $a=0; for(;$a++ < 100000000;); : 23.28609919548s
?>
Instead of this usage;
<?php
$arr = array("orange", "banana", "apple", "raspberry");
$i = 0;
while ($i < count($arr)) {
$a = $arr[$i];
echo $a ."\n";
$i++;
}
// or
$i = 0;
$c = count($arr);
while ($i < $c) {
$a = $arr[$i];
echo $a ."\n";
$i++;
}
?>
This could be more efficient;
<?php
while ($a = $arr[1 * $i++]) echo $a ."\n";
?>