Breaking if and foreach

Question

I have a foreach loop and an if statement. I need to finally break out of the foreach if a match is found.

foreach ($equipxml as $equip) {

    $current_device = $equip->xpath("name");
    if ($current_device[0] == $device) {

        // Found a match in the file.
        $nodeid = $equip->id;

        <break out of if and foreach here>
    }
}

Answer 1

foreach($equipxml as $equip) {
    $current_device = $equip->xpath("name");
    if ( $current_device[0] == $device ) {
        // found a match in the file            
        $nodeid = $equip->id;
        break;
    }
}

Just use break. that's it.

Answer 2

if is not a loop structure, so you can't "break it".

However, you can break out of foreach by simply calling break. In your example it has the expected effect:

$device = "wanted";
foreach($equipxml as $equip) {
    $current_device = $equip->xpath("name");
    if ( $current_device[0] == $device ) {
        // found a match in the file            
        $nodeid = $equip->id;

        // will leave the foreach loop immediately and also the if statement
        break;
        some_function(); // never reached!
    }
    another_function();  // not executed after match/break
}

---

Just to keep it intact for anyone else who stumbles across this question and is looking for an answer.

break Takes optional arguments defining how many loop structures it should break. Example:

foreach (['1','2','3'] as $a) {
    echo "$a ";
    foreach (['3','2','1'] as $b) {
        echo "$b ";
        if ($a == $b) { 
            break 2;  // this will break both foreach loops
        }
    }
    echo ". ";  // never reached!
}
echo "!";

Result output: