Using for loop within if statement in PHP

Question

I am writing a rostering app. This statement checks that by booking an extra shift the user doesn't violate a rule whereby they have booked more than 7 night shifts in a row. This code runs fine but I am trying to find a more elegant way to write it, for instance using a for loop within the if statement. This snippet exists within a bigger while loop.

if (
    $original_shift->night_shift==true &&
    $p_lookback_night_7===[1,1,1,1,1,1,1] || $p_lookforward_night_7===[1,1,1,1,1,1,1] ||
    ($p_lookback_night_1===[1] && $p_lookforward_night_6===[1,1,1,1,1,1]) ||
    ($p_lookback_night_2===[1,1] && $p_lookforward_night_5===[1,1,1,1,1]) ||
    ($p_lookback_night_3===[1,1,1] && $p_lookforward_night_4===[1,1,1,1]) ||
    ($p_lookback_night_4===[1,1,1,1] && $p_lookforward_night_3===[1,1,1]) ||
    ($p_lookback_night_5===[1,1,1,1,1] && $p_lookforward_night_2===[1,1]) ||
    ($p_lookback_night_6===[1,1,1,1,1,1] && $p_lookforward_night_1===[1])
) {
    return 'You can\'t do more than 7 night shifts in a row'; 
    break;
}

The $p_look variables get populated by a loop looking either back of forward the specified number of days at the end of the variable name and returning an array of true or false for that number of days dependent on whether those are night shifts or not.

How do all the $p_lookback_night_7 (and $p_lookforward_night_7) variables get populated? — Nigel Ren
– Nigel Ren, Commented May 31, 2018 at 7:35

Nigel Ren · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-31 07:50:26Z

As an alternative to building several arrays and complex comparisons, this alternative just uses 2 arrays, one with the days prior and one looking forward. I'm not 100% sure if this includes the day they are trying to book off, but hopefully the idea is easy enough to adjust to your needs.

The basic concept is to look backwards through the $p_lookback_night list and count the 1's, stopping when it reaches a 0. It then does a similar thing through the $p_lookforward_night list. The end result is the number of 1's in a row...

$p_lookback_night = [0,0,0,0,1,1];
$p_lookforward_night = [1,1,1,1,0,0];
$run = 0;
foreach (array_reverse($p_lookback_night) as $test )  {
    if ( $test == 1 )    {
        $run++;
    }
    else    {
        break;
    }
}

foreach ($p_lookforward_night as $test )  {
    if ( $test == 1 )    {
        $run++;
    }
    else    {
        break;
    }
}

echo $run;

With the test data it gives 6, so you can use this to decide if they are trying to book 7 in a row.

Mihai · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-31 08:07:21Z

0

Assuming all those arrays can only contain 1 in this case you can simply just count the values

&& count($p_lookback_night_7)===7 || ...

Maybe even use the int at the end dynamically but this will be probably more trouble that it is worth. Something like

for($i=1;$i<8;$i++){
  if(count(${"p_lookback_night_".$i}) == $i && count(${"p_lookforward_night_".$i}) == $i ){
  ..wahtever
  }
}

edited May 31, 2018 at 8:07

answered May 31, 2018 at 7:33

Mihai

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