Formatting page array items - first, second, or third items

[hollyvalero]

Hi!

I'm working on formatting blog results. Currently I do a check for the first record and give it a bigger treatment, with a basic thumbnail/blurb/link for the rest...

 

$items = $pages->find("template=articleblog|post, limit=30, sort=-cbdate");
foreach ($items as $item) {
     if ($item == $items->first()) {
         [ this is where we do the larger photo, blurb, etc. since it's the newest]
   } else {
     [ standard thumb/blub/treatment]
  }

 

 

I'd like to be able to extend this so that the newest record got the big treatment, and then, say the next 2-3 got something bigger than a blurb, followed by the older treatment.

I've seen the counter for first/last

$i = 0;
$length = count($items);
foreach ($items as $item) {
if ($i == 0) {
	// first
} else if ($i == $length - 1) {
	// last
}
$i++;
}

But my attempts to figure out how to do this and increment the counter are resulting in server errors... 

 

$i = 0;
$length = count($items);
foreach ($items as $item) {
 if ($i == 0) {
    // first
 } else if ($i ==  1) {
    // second 
 } else if ($i ==  2) {
    // third 
 } else   {
    // all the rest
 }
$i++;
}

 

 

Looking for a good tutorial or idea for figuring out how to increment the counter and compare the number to choose the formatting for those array items that are not first or last.

thanks in advance!

 

 

[Autofahrn]

The code does not look wrong to me, what's the exact error you encounter? If you only see a 500 you may either get the exact cause from the error log (Setup>Logs>errors) or you may activate debug mode in config.php ($config->debug = true;). In any case you probably want to install the Tracy Debugger...

Instead of the if cascade you may consider using a switch statement.

[Gideon So]

Hi @hollyvalero,

Maybe you can try $yourArray->eq() to get the item you want.

Can't give long example. Please take a look on the doc here:

https://processwire.com/api/ref/wire-array/eq/

Gideon

[dragan]

It seems strange you get a 500 error for something so trivial. Perhaps you have other code you've stripped from your post that causes an endless loop or redirect... You can try this:

$refs = $pages->find("template=project, title%=Zürich, include=all");
$count = count($refs);
$last = $count-1;
$c = 0;

foreach($refs as $r) {
    switch ($c) {
        case 0:
            echo "<hr><strong>FIRST: {$r->title}</strong><br>{$r->project_desc_short}";
        break;
        case 1:
            echo "<hr><strong>SECOND: {$r->title}</strong><br>{$r->project_desc_short}";
        break;
        case 2:
            echo "<hr><strong>THIRD: {$r->title}</strong><br>{$r->project_desc_short}";
        break;
        case $last:
            echo "<hr><strong>LAST: {$r->title}</strong><br>{$r->project_desc_short}";
        break;
        default:
            echo "<hr><strong>DEFAULT: {$r->title}</strong><br>{$r->project_desc_short}";
        break;
    }
    $c++;
}

 

[Autofahrn]

Just wondering what the switch will do if the array has three elements so $last equals two... ?

[dragan]

You could use something like this:

$refs = $pages->find("template=project, title%=Zürich, include=all, limit=3"); // limit here just for testing small result-sets
$count = count($refs);
$last = $count-1;
$c = 0;
echo "<p>$count</p>";
foreach($refs as $r) {
    switch (true) {
        case ($c === 0):
            echo "<hr><strong>FIRST: {$r->title}</strong><br>{$r->project_desc_short}";
        break;
        case ($c === 1):
            echo "<hr><strong>SECOND: {$r->title}</strong><br>{$r->project_desc_short}";
        break;
        case ($c === 2 && $c === $last):
            echo "<hr><strong>LAST: {$r->title}</strong><br>{$r->project_desc_short}";
        break;
        case ($c === 2 && $c != $last):
            echo "<hr><strong>THIRD: {$r->title}</strong><br>{$r->project_desc_short}";
        break;
        default:
            echo "<hr><strong>DEFAULT: {$r->title}</strong><br>{$r->project_desc_short}";
        break;
    }
    $c++;
}
echo "<hr><br>" . $refs->count . " Referenzen gefunden";

see also https://www.phpknowhow.com/basics/if-else-and-switch-case/#highlighter_461554

Perhaps you could use this technique (PHP 7.2+), with goto: https://derickrethans.nl/php7.2-switch.html

[Autofahrn]

Thanks, @dragan, somehow expected a shorter answer like: The switch takes the first case matching the evaluated value... ?

...and: don't use goto... [ducking away] ?

[hollyvalero]

I haven't used the switch statement yet, but I'm looking into it... this morning I re-uploaded the code and this time, it worked... 

and I'm getting that first, second-third, rest view I was hoping for!  Thank you so much for your input!!