I have come across a PHP foreach statement that I am having trouble finding any documentation on.
Here is the code I am having trouble understanding:
<?php foreach((array)$this->item->partno as $value): ?>
// do some stuff
<?php endforeach; ?>
What is the (array) doing and what is happening with this foreach?
You're casting (converting) whatever the type of $this->item->partno is, in an array.
More on this in the php docs here
This technique is useful when you have a function and you want it to take an argument that can be either a single value or an array. For example, you might normally do something like this:
function foo($items) {
if (!is_array($items)) {
$items = array($items);
}
foreach ($items as $item) {
// ...
}
}
By casting the variable to an array inline, you can avoid the explicit array check, and the code will work fine if you pass it either a single value or an array:
function foo($items) {
foreach ((array) $items as $item) {
// ...
}
}
foo(1);
foo([1, 2, 3]);
