Why am I getting NULL in foreach loop?

Asked Apr 22 '20 at 07:36

Active Apr 22 '20 at 07:38

Viewed 25 times

In PHP, I have lines of code given below.

<?php
$num_array = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7];

function generate_random_number($length){
  if($length > 15){
    $length = 15;
  }
  return rand(pow(10, $length-1), pow(10, $length)-1);
}

// if random number is less than 5 then return that number else call this function again.
function recurse(){
    $rand = generate_random_number(1);
    if($rand < 5){
        echo '(recurse happened) ';
      recurse();
    }else{
        return $rand;  
    }  
}

// loopinig seven times
foreach ($num_array as $number) {
    var_dump(recurse());
    echo '<br>';
}
?>

Problem -
If recurse() function calls itself again then in foreach loop it prints NULL instead of waiting for the next result.
You can see my output (If you will run then you will get different output) -.

int(5)
int(9)
int(7)
(recurse happened) NULL
(recurse happened) NULL
int(7)
int(9)

Why is this happening and what's the solution ?

edited Apr 22 '20 at 07:38

asked Apr 22 '20 at 07:36

Abhishek kamal

1

You aren't returning a value when you recurse. Change `recurse();` to `return recurse();` – Nick Apr 22 '20 at 07:38
1

You don't really need to use recursion here, just wrap it in a loop (`while (($rand = generate_random_number(1)) < 5)`) – Nigel Ren Apr 22 '20 at 07:41
Okay thanks.... but actually I was not getting why recursion not returning the value. – Abhishek kamal Apr 22 '20 at 07:44

Why am I getting NULL in foreach loop?

0 Answers0