Auto-increment for alphabet using PHP

Question

I am trying auto-increment using PHP to generate English alphabets instead numbers. I know how to do auto increment for numbers:

for ($i = 0; $i <= 2; $i++) {
    echo $i;
}

But I want a way I can generate ABC instead 123.

Sounds like the sort of thing a teacher would set as homework — RiggsFolly, Mar 19 '18 at 16:20
I asked myself the same, for an efficient way without defining a separate array. I am an adult and it's no homework — Avatar, Nov 04 '19 at 08:50

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 19 '18 at 16:28

You can use chr function together with ASCII code to generate them

For UpperCase:

for ($i = 65; $i <= 90; $i++) {
    echo chr($i) . PHP_EOL;
}

For LowerCase:

for ($i = 97; $i <= 122; $i++) {
    echo chr($i) . PHP_EOL;
}

Here the complete list of ASCII codes: https://www.ascii-code.com/

RiggsFolly · Answer 2 · 2018-03-19T17:29:41.210

3

Just get the ascii code for A and loop for 26

<?php
$a_is = ord('A');

for ( $ch=$a_is; $ch<$a_is+26; $ch++ ) {
    echo chr($ch) . PHP_EOL ;
}

Or set a char count

<?php
$a_is = ord('A');
$stop = 5;

for ( $ch=$a_is; $ch<$a_is+$stop; $ch++ ) {
    echo chr($ch) . PHP_EOL ;
}

edited Mar 19 '18 at 17:29

answered Mar 19 '18 at 16:29

RiggsFolly

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 19 '18 at 16:22

1

You can compare and increment strings the exact same way as numbers, just change the initialisation and exit conditions of the loop:

for($i='A'; $i<='C'; $i++) {
  echo $i, PHP_EOL;
}

A
B
C

answered Mar 19 '18 at 16:22

iainn

Thanks but when I replace C with Z it is giving AA AB AC... instead loop end on Z – SimulationCode Mar 20 '18 at 03:02

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 19 '18 at 16:24

1

One option is to use range and use foreach to loop.

$letters = range("A","C");
foreach( $letters as $letter ) {
    echo $letter . "<br />";
}

This will result to:

A
B
C

answered Mar 19 '18 at 16:24

Eddie

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 19 '18 at 16:21

0

You could just create an array of letters like so, and use the index of the forloop to loop through them.

$letters = array('a','b','c');

    for($i=0;$i<=2;$i++)
    {
        echo  $letters[$i];
    }

answered Mar 19 '18 at 16:21

Juakali92

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 19 '18 at 16:26

0

Similar to above, you could set a variable to $x = "abcdefg..." and echo substr($x, $i, 1). You will need to reset $i to 1 whenever it reaches 27.

answered Mar 19 '18 at 16:26

Old Guy

6 Answers6