PHP foreach loop separated in two different included files

Question

I need to include an external php file, then execute some code and finally include the final file But since the first file has the beginning of the foreach and the second file has the end of the foreach, it's not working:

master script:

if ($conditionMet) include('begin.php');

echo 'blablabla';
... do more stuff

if ($conditionMet) include('end.php');

begin.php:

foreach (array(1,2,3,4) as $id):

end.php:

endforeach;

Of course it doesn't work. I thought maybe because php would not know where to start looping at the foreach again after begin.php was included but it's not that because it works if I do this:

if ($conditionMet) eval('foreach (array(1,2,3,4) as $id):');
echo 'blablabla';
if ($conditionMet) eval('endforeach;');

Can't write the code like this with eval, I don't like using eval, plus I have more code to put in begin.php and end.php

UPDATE:

It seems there is confusion as to why I want to do this and the purpose of the code. I thought it would be better to simplify the code to get a straight solution but it looks like I only made it worse, so I'll explain more:

If you forget about the two if the master script, the line echo 'bablabla; is in fact a lot of code with a foreach loop in it as well that passes through an associative array and outputs correct html. The array would for instance be like that:

array(
    array('product'=>'carrot', 'price'=>5),
    array('product'=>'onion', 'price'=>4),
    array('product'=>'apple', 'price'=>2)
);

Now on certain occasions, the array would be slightly different like such:

array(
    array('product'=>'carrot', 'price'=>5, 'category'=>'vegetable'),
    array('product'=>'onion', 'price'=>4, 'category'=>'vegetable'),
    array('product'=>'apple', 'price'=>2, 'category'=>fruit')
);

This is when $conditionMet is true, so in "begin.php", it rebuilds the array like such:

foreach ( regorganizeArray($productsArray) as $productsArray)

to become

array(
    array(
        array('product'=>'carrot', 'price'=>5, 'category'=>'vegetable'),
        array('product'=>'onion', 'price'=>4, 'category'=>'vegetable'),
    ),
        array('product'=>'apple', 'price'=>2, 'category'=>fruit')
    )
);

then will display extra stuff for instance

<h4>vegetables</h4>

then it the rest of the master script is executed seamlessly with the master script just displaying the content of the array without even knowing there's a difference.

Finally, "end.php" ends the foreach.

Now you're probably all thinking that I should put the code of the master script in a function but there are several versions of it (themes) and they never do the exact thing. The ONLY thing that all the different versions of the master script have in common is that the input array is the same.

There you go, sorry for all the confusion, I would not be a really good teacher as I'm bad at explaining, but I hope this made things clearer.

Answer 1

Why not simply do something like:

$productsArray = array(...) ; // This is what you have at the beginning
if ($conditionMet) {
    $productsArray = regorganizeArray($productsArray) ;
}
else {
    $productsArray = array($productsArray, ) ;
}
foreach ($productsArray as $productsArr) {
    // Do whatever you want
}

If you have this array:

$productsArray = array(
    array('product'=>'carrot', 'price'=>5),
    array('product'=>'onion', 'price'=>4),
    array('product'=>'apple', 'price'=>2)
); 

And the conditions is not met, you will create something like:

$productsArray = array(
    array(
        array('product'=>'carrot', 'price'=>5),
        array('product'=>'onion', 'price'=>4),
        array('product'=>'apple', 'price'=>2)
    )
); 

So the foreach statement will loop one time, and the only time it loops the $productsArr will contains the first array.

If the conditions is not met you get (after reorganization) this array:

array(
    array(
        array('product'=>'carrot', 'price'=>5, 'category'=>'vegetable'),
        array('product'=>'onion', 'price'=>4, 'category'=>'vegetable'),
    ),
    array(
        array('product'=>'apple', 'price'=>2, 'category'=>'fruit')
    )
);

And you will loop 2 times, first you'll get the vegetable array and second time the fruit array.

Answer 2

Each php file must be syntactically valid before the preprocessing is done, so since you have a syntax error in begin.php the request will be dead and you'll have a syntax error.

Answer 3

That approach won't work as it is not valid PHP. Not exactly sure why you'd need a separate php file to perform the loop but if you need to, you can use functions and callbacks like so:

In Master script:

if ($conditionMet) {
   include('loopscript.php')
   performTheLoop('doMyStuff')
} else {
   doMyStuff();
}

function doMyStuff() {
  echo 'blablabla';
}

In loopscript.php:

function performTheLoop($callback) {
  foreach (array(1,2,3,4) as $id) {
    call_user_func($callback); 
  }
}