[NewToJava2011]

My website design uses a layout with 3 separate columns and thus 3 separate headings. I'm trying to reuse code to keep things looking tidy.

The 3 cities below become my column headings as set in my cityConfig.php script

$cities = array('London', 'New York', 'Paris');

$columnHeadings = array($columnHeading . $cities[0], $columnHeading . $cities[1], $columnHeading . $cities[2]);

My threeColumnContainer.php script makes reference to these headings via the columnsHeading() function as below.

<ul class="columns">
            <li class="col1">
                <h3>
                    <?php
                    columnHeadings($columnHeadings); 
                    ?>
                </h3>
            </li>
            <li class="col2">
                <h3>
                    <?php
                    columnHeadings($columnHeadings);
                    ?>
                </h3>
            </li>
            <li class="col3">
                <h3>
                    <?php
                    columnHeadings($columnHeadings);
                    ?>
                </h3>
            </li>
  

<?php

function columnHeadings($columnHeadings) {
    
    static $counter = 0; 
    
    if (isset($columnHeadings[$counter])) {
        echo $columnHeadings[$counter];
        $counter ++; 
    }
    
    return result;
}
?>

My question being, is it bad practice to use a counter like this to increment around the array to display the relevant headings?

My previous solution was the following as as mentioned duplicated more code.

<ul class="columns">
            <li class="col1">
                <h3>
                    <?php
                    if (isset($columnHeadings[0])) {
                        echo $columnHeadings[0];
                    }
                    ?>
                </h3>
            </li>
            <li class="col2">
                <h3>
                    <?php
                    if (isset($columnHeadings[1])) {
                        echo $columnHeadings[1];
                    }
                    ?>
                </h3>
            </li>
            <li class="col3">
                <h3>
                    <?php
                    if (isset($columnHeadings[2])) {
                        echo $columnHeadings[2];
                    }
                    ?>
                </h3>
            </li>
  

[AdaHacker]

Yeah, that looks a bit questionable. Seems to be that it would be much more straight-forward to just pass the index in as a separate parameter rather than using the static variable. That way you don't have to assume that you'll always be displaying those items in the same order. Also, it would be a bit clearer that the function shouldn't actually output the same thing every time. And while I'm at it, you don't need to be returning an undefined variable - it's pointless.

function columnHeadings($columnHeadings, $index) {
    if (isset($columnHeadings[$index])) {
        echo $columnHeadings[$index];
        $counter ++; 
    }
}

But really, I question the need for that function in the first place - all it does is an isset() check and an echo. You don't seem to be calling it in a loop, or getting the values in your array from an external source, so why do you need the isset() check at all? Shouldn't you already know which array indexes are set?

[CTphpnwb]

I'm not really sure what you're trying to do, but I think that trying to use two languages at once is confusing you. Try this:

<?php
$htm = <<<HERE
<ul class="columns">
	<li class="col1">
		<h3>
			{Heading1}
		</h3>
	</li>
		<li class="col2">
			<h3>
				{Heading2}
			</h3>
		</li>
		<li class="col3">
			<h3>
				{Heading3}
			</h3>
		</li>
</ul>
HERE;
$headings = array("My first heading", "The second heading!", "The third and last heading");
$replace = array("{Heading1}","{Heading2}","{Heading3}");
$htm = str_replace($replace, $headings, $htm);
echo $htm;

?>

Isn't that easier?

This post has been edited by CTphpnwb: 04 February 2012 - 12:42 PM