PHP Re-loop a foreach loop to sort images according to size

Question

I have an array of images. In the array, for each image, I have whether the image is tall or wide. I need to loop through all of the images, and pair a tall with wide into a div, then move to the next until they are all done. I have something that sort of works using a foreach loop, but the problem is that some images get skipped … the loop stops when each image has gone through the loop, which is standard behavior for a “foreach” loop, from what I have read… So now I am wondering if there is a different loop I should use, or should I put my foreach loop inside another loop so that it repeats until the images are used up? Here is my loop so far, that does what I want, but leaves out several images: $num_of_images = count($images); $notins = array(); $order = 1; $i = 0; //start my loop foreach ($images as $image) { $id = $image->ID; //check if image is in the notins array..skips if it is if (!in_array($id, $notins)){ //find out if the image is tall or wide $attach = wp_get_attachment_image_src( $id, 'full'); $height = $attach['2']; $width = $attach['1']; if ($height < $width) { $size = "wide" ;} else { $size = "tall" ;} //get the link to the sized image $preview_array = image_downsize( $image->ID, $size ); $img_preview = $preview_array[0]; // thumbnail or medium image to use for preview. if( $order == 3 ){ //if previous slide was tall, get a wide slide if($size == "wide") { $order = 1; array_push($notins, $id); $i++; ?>

KFSys · Answer

Heya all,

The main issue with your approach is that the foreach loop goes through each image only once and there’s no guarantee that the images will come in the sequence tall, wide, tall, wide, and so on.

A better approach is to divide your images into two separate arrays, one for tall images and one for wide images, then pair them together.

Here’s a rough idea of how you could modify your code:

$tallImages = [];
$wideImages = [];

// Divide the images into two arrays based on their dimensions
foreach ($images as $image) {
    $attach = wp_get_attachment_image_src($image->ID, 'full');
    $height = $attach['2'];
    $width = $attach['1'];

    if ($height < $width) {
        $wideImages[] = $image;
    } else {
        $tallImages[] = $image;
    }
}

// Assuming that the number of tall images and wide images is the same,
// pair them together
for ($i = 0; $i < count($tallImages); $i++) {
    $tallImage = $tallImages[$i];
    $wideImage = $wideImages[$i];

    // Your code for outputting the div here, using $tallImage and $wideImage
    // e.g. outputImage($tallImage); outputImage($wideImage);
}

This is a simplified version of the code and you may need to modify it according to your needs. Please note that this code assumes that there are an equal number of tall and wide images. If this isn’t the case, you would need to add some additional logic to handle the situation where there are more images of one type than the other.

The outputImage() function used in this example should be a function where you put your code that generates the image HTML. You pass either a tall or a wide image to this function.

This way, you are certain that each tall image will be paired with a wide image in sequence.

Andrew SB · Answer

This question was answered by @sierracircle:

Okay, using @ryanpq idea of putting everything into two arrays has worked. I can reverse the order of using the larger or smaller of the two arrays, depending on if I want images to show up that do not have a partner image.

Here are my loops (tested and works):

if ($images) { 

			$tall = array();
			$wide = array();
			foreach ($images as $image) {
			   $id = $image->ID;                    
			   $attach = wp_get_attachment_image_src(  $id, 'full');
			   $height = $attach['2'];
		 	   $width = $attach['1'];  
			     if ($height < $width) { $size = "wide" ;} else { $size = "tall" ; }
				  if( $size == 'tall') {  array_push($tall, $id); } 
				  if( $size == 'wide') {  array_push($wide, $id); } 

			    } //get everything into two arrays

			//get the larger and smaller of the two arrays
			if(count($tall) > count($wide)){ 
$large = $tall; $small = $wide; $size = "tall"; $sm_size = "wide"; 
}  
				else { $large = $wide; $small = $tall; $size = "wide"; $sm_size = "tall";}  

			//now loop through the smaller array
			 $i = 0;
                        foreach($large as $image) {
				$id = $image;
				$previews = image_downsize( $id, $size );
			        $img = $previews[0];  
				$sm_id = $small[$i];
				$sm_previews = image_downsize( $sm_id, $sm_size );
			        $sm_img = $sm_previews[0];  



													?>
			     
<li class="the-slide gallery">
   <!-- - - - - - - - - - - Image - - - - - - - - - - - - - -->	
	<div class="image <?php echo $size; ?>" style="background: url(<?php echo $img; ?>)
no-repeat center !important; background-size: cover !important; max-width: 100%; ">
</div>	
   <!-- - - - - - - - - - - end Image  - - - - - - - - - - - - - -->
   <!-- - - - - - - - - - - Image - - - - - - - - - - - - - -->	
	<div class="image <?php echo $sm_size; ?>" style="background: url(<?php echo
$sm_img; ?>) no-repeat center !important; background-size: cover !important; max-width: 100%; ">
</div>	
   <!-- - - - - - - - - - - end Image  - - - - - - - - - - - - - -->


					

			<?php $i++;  }

		  
		     

	} //if images

…

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PHP Re-loop a foreach loop to sort images according to size

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