How can I make a PHP counter?

Question

I know I have done this in Javascript once, but how can I make it in PHP? Basically I want to do this:

if (empty($counter)){
   $counter = 1;
}else{
   "plus one to $counter" ($counter++?)
}

But it didn't work when I tried. How would I go about doing this?

Thank you :)

EDIT: This is so I can do:

if ($counter == 10){
   echo("Counter is 10!");
}

EDIT:

This is all in a "while()" so that I can count how many times it goes on, because LIMIT will not work for the query I'm currently doing.

Answer 1

why the extra if into the while? i would do this:

$counter = 0;
while(...)
{
    (...)
    $counter++;
}

echo $counter;

Answer 2

To increment a given value, attach the increment operator ++ to your integer variable and place it within your while loop directly, without using a conditional expression to check if the variable is set or not.

$counter = 1;

while(...){
    echo "plus one to $counter";
    $counter++;
}

If your counter is used to determine how many times your code is to be executed then you can place the condtion within your while() expression:

while($counter < 10){
    echo "plus one to $counter";
    $counter++;
}

echo("Counter is $counter!");  // Outputs: Counter is 10!