Two arrays in foreach loop

Question

I want to generate a selectbox using two arrays, one containing the country codes and another containing the country names.

This is an example:

<?php
    $codes = array('tn','us','fr');
    $names = array('Tunisia','United States','France');

    foreach( $codes as $code and $names as $name ) {
        echo '<option value="' . $code . '">' . $name . '</option>';
    }
?>

This method didn't work for me. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

All fully tested

3 ways to create a dynamic dropdown from an array.

This will create a dropdown menu from an array and automatically assign its respective value.

Method #1 (Normal Array)

<?php

$names = array('tn'=>'Tunisia','us'=>'United States','fr'=>'France');

echo '<select name="countries">';

foreach($names AS $let=>$word){
    echo '<option value="'.$let.'">'.$word.'</option>';
}
echo '</select>';

?>

---

---

Method #2 (Normal Array)

<select name="countries">

<?php

$countries = array('tn'=> "Tunisia", "us"=>'United States',"fr"=>'France');
foreach($countries as $select=>$country_name){
echo '<option value="' . $select . '">' . $country_name . '</option>';
}
?>

</select>

---

---

Method #3 (Associative Array)

<?php

$my_array = array(
     'tn' => 'Tunisia',
     'us' => 'United States',
     'fr' => 'France'
);

echo '<select name="countries">';
echo '<option value="none">Select...</option>';
foreach ($my_array as $k => $v) {
    echo '<option value="' . $k . '">' . $v . '</option>';
}
echo '</select>';
?>

Answer 2

Few arrays can also be iterated like this:

foreach($array1 as $key=>$val){ // Loop though one array
    $val2 = $array2[$key]; // Get the values from the other arrays
    $val3 = $array3[$key];
    $result[] = array( //Save result in third array
      'id' => $val,
      'quant' => $val2,
      'name' => $val3,
    );
  }

Answer 3

foreach( $codes as $code and $names as $name ) { }

That is not valid.

You probably want something like this...

foreach( $codes as $index => $code ) {
   echo '<option value="' . $code . '">' . $names[$index] . '</option>';
}

Alternatively, it'd be much easier to make the codes the key of your $names array...

$names = array(
   'tn' => 'Tunisia',
   'us' => 'United States',
   ...
);

Answer 4

You can use array_merge to combine two arrays and then iterate over them.

$array1 = array("foo" => "bar");
$array2 = array("hello" => "world");
$both_arrays = array_merge((array)$array1, (array)$array2);
print_r($both_arrays);

Answer 5

it works for me

$counter = 0;
foreach($codes as $code)
{
$codes_array[$counter]=$code;
$counter++;
}
$counter = 0;
foreach($names as $name)
{
echo $codes_array[$counter]."and".$name;
$counter++;
}

Answer 6

foreach operates on only one array at a time.

The way your array is structured, you can array_combine() them into an array of key-value pairs then foreach that single array:

foreach (array_combine($codes, $names) as $code => $name) {
    echo '<option value="' . $code . '">' . $name . '</option>';
}

Or as seen in the other answers, you can hardcode an associative array instead.