while foreach loop is outputting twice

Question

I want the loop just to output once. Instead it outputs twice. Here is the code:

$results = mysql_query($query);
    while ($c = mysql_fetch_array($results)){
        $individualPostcode = explode(",", $c['postcode']);
        foreach($individualPostcode as $val){ 
            $val = trim($val); //Get rid of spaces
            if($val === $postcode){
                echo $c['url']."<br>";
            }
        }
    }
}

Here is the output:

http://www.dyno.com/home-security/local-experts/greater-london/dyno-locks-and-alarms-enfield
http://www.dyno.com/home-security/local-experts/greater-london/dyno-locks--alarms-enfield
http://www.dyno.com/home-security/local-experts/greater-london/dyno-locks-and-alarms-enfield
http://www.dyno.com/home-security/local-experts/greater-london/dyno-locks--alarms-enfield

I've tried taken out the foreach loop but I need to go through that array checking against a user input.

Here is the initialisation of $postcode:

$userInput = $_POST["input"];
if(strlen($userInput) < 4) 
    echo "User Input : ".$userInput."<br>";
else //Below gets the first three chars of the users string
    echo "User Input : $userInput<br>What is being used : ".mb_substr($userInput, 0, 3)."<br>";

$postcode = mb_substr($userInput, 0, 3);

What is value of `$postcode` ? And if 2 records have same Comma separated list for post code. Its going to repeat for 2nd record and 1st one ! — Pratik Joshi, Jun 29 '15 at 09:26
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12859942/why-shouldnt-i-use-mysql-functions-in-php — AgeDeO, Jun 29 '15 at 09:27
$postcode is a user input that is formatted so its the first three characters i.e. E10 78P would become E10 — MrHappySandwich, Jun 29 '15 at 09:28

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 29 '15 at 09:31

1

mysql_fetch_array returns both an associative and index array for each of your returned results. The foreach loop is going to loop over both and output twice. Try using mysql_fetch_assoc()

http://php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-fetch-array.php

Better still, try moving to the mysqli class. It's faster and mysql is depricated.

http://php.net/manual/en/intro.mysqli.php

answered Jun 29 '15 at 09:31

LeDoc

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I've tried changing the mysql_fetch_array to the mysql_fetch assoc but the output is still the same. – MrHappySandwich Jun 29 '15 at 09:34

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 29 '15 at 10:01

You can always create an array of the URL's to stop them from duplicating by checking if the url has been put into the array:

$results = mysql_query($query);
$urlsArr = array();
while ($c = mysql_fetch_array($results)){
    $individualPostcode = explode(",", $c['postcode']);
    foreach($individualPostcode as $val){ 
        $val = trim($val); //Get rid of spaces
        if($val === $postcode){
            if (!in_array($c['url'], $urlsArr)) echo $c['url']."<br>";
            $urlsArr[] = $c['url'];
        }
    }
}

while foreach loop is outputting twice

2 Answers2