Better way to check for minimum count if($total > 3)

[hollyvalero]

I'm trying to come up with an automatic feature for a home page that will display 3 products (or more) in a slider carousel as long as there is a minimum of 3 items that qualify  If there are less than 3, they would just not show up.

 I've been trying to add a count and this is working but it seems, at best, inelegant...

 

     $total = $pages->count("template=product");
     if($total > 3) {
          $products = $pages->find("template=product, limit=9, sort=sort"  );
          }
 

 

Is there a better/shorter way to put this?

 

 

 

[Autofahrn]

I'd probably do the find and then check if $products contain the minimum amount. Otherwise you'll have two database queries.

[hollyvalero]

5 minutes ago, Autofahrn said:

I'd probably do the find and then check if $products contain the minimum amount. Otherwise you'll have two database queries.

I had something like this but it wasn't working...

          $products = $pages->find("template=product, limit=9, sort=sort"  );   
           if($products > 3) {
          }
 

[Autofahrn]

try:

 	$products = $pages->find("template=product, limit=9, sort=sort"  );   
	if($products->count() > 3) {
	}

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

[hollyvalero]

16 minutes ago, Autofahrn said:

try:

 	$products = $pages->find("template=product, limit=9, sort=sort"  );   
	if($products->count() > 3) {
	}

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

Thank you! 

[dotnetic]

Even shorter:

$products = $pages->find("template=product, limit=9, sort=sort")->count(3);
if ($products) d($products);

 

[hollyvalero]

21 minutes ago, jens.martsch said:

Even shorter:

$products = $pages->find("template=product, limit=9, sort=sort")->count(3);
if ($products) d($products);

 

THAT'S very cool. Just need to figure out what the "d" in d($products) means. 

[elabx]

9 minutes ago, hollyvalero said:

THAT'S very cool. Just need to figure out what the "d" in d($products) means. 

It's a debug command from Tracy Debugger module. 

[Autofahrn]

28 minutes ago, jens.martsch said:

Even shorter

Is this mentioned somewhere that PageArray::count resp. WireArray::count may return something else than an int?

Always learning...

[dragan]

https://adrianbj.github.io/TracyDebugger/#/debug-methods?id=dump

In case you haven't installed Tracy Debugger yet, you should do it NOW ?

[dotnetic]

Yes, Tracy is a must have module to debug

[elabx]

4 minutes ago, Autofahrn said:

Is this mentioned somewhere that PageArray::count resp. WireArray::count may return something else than an int?

Always learning...

What's happening is that integer 0 loosely evaluates to false and any value 1+ evaulates to true:

https://www.php.net/manual/es/types.comparisons.php#types.comparisions-loose

[Autofahrn]

Just now, elabx said:

What's happening is that integer 0 loosely evaluates to false

that's clear.

But to fulfill the initial request, $products should hold the full result from the find in case it contains at least three elements. So PageArray::count(int) is expected to be something conditional and returns the full array if the array contains the requested number or something empty.

[dotnetic]

@Autofahrn is right.

[elabx]

Yes sorry! Jumped ahead too fast! Now I am in intrigued too ? Could you throws us a lead @jens.martsch ?

Like, I cannot find PaginatedArray or PageArray classes to have their own implementation of count.

[dotnetic]

@elabx You are also correct with your statement, that integer 0 loosely evaluates to false.

But as @Autofahrn said, the original poster @hollyvalero wants to work with the product array afterwards. But as my query does only return false or the integer number, that is not what he needs.

So something like

$products = $pages->find("template=news, limit=9, sort=sort"  );   
if($products->count > 3) {
echo $products->each(function($product) {
  return "<p>$product->title</p>";
});
}

would be correct

Edited May 17, 2019 by jens.martsch
Corrected the code example

[Autofahrn]

For me the count() always returns the amount of pages found, regardless of its argument. But I'm on 3.0.123 still...

[dotnetic]

Damn, I am very sorry. I mislead you. I thought it returns false, if the count fails, but it turns out, it really returns the number.

Sorry. I updated my example above, which is basically the same as @Autofahrn's

[Autofahrn]

33 minutes ago, Autofahrn said:

Always learning... 

ok, too early... ?

...at least we managed to make this a hot topic: ?

[hollyvalero]

41 minutes ago, Autofahrn said:

ok, too early... ?

...at least we managed to make this a hot topic: ?

Ha ha! Thank you for all your help. I did use Tracy Debugger  when I first started and I wasn't skilled enough for it to be helpful... I will try that again!  Good idea!