Next Iterator method for associative Array

Question

I want to use an associative array with the PHP iterator:

http://php.net/manual/en/class.iterator.php

is it possible?

I defined these methods:

  public function rewind(){    
    reset($this->_arr);
    $this->_position = key($this->_arr);
  }

  public function current(){    
    return $this->_arr[$this->_position];
  }

  public function key(){
    return $this->_position;
  }

  public function next(){    
    ++$this->_position;
  }

  public function valid(){    
    return isset($this->_arr[$this->_position]);
  }

the problem is it doesn't iterate correctly. I only get one element.

I think it's because of the ++$this->_position code in the next() method which doesn't have any effect because _position is a string (key of the associative array).

so how can I go to the next element of this type of array?

Answer 1

function rewind() {
    reset($this->_arr);
}

function current() {
    return current($this->_arr);
}

function key() {
    return key($this->_arr);
}

function next() {
    next($this->_arr);
}

function valid() {
    return key($this->_arr) !== null;
}

Answer 2

Why not creating an ArrayObject from Your associative Array? Then You can getIterator() from this ArrayObject and call key(), next() etc on it as You want...

Some example:

$array = array('one' => 'ONE', 'two' => 'TWO', 'three' = 'THREE');
// create ArrayObject and get it's iterator
$ao = new ArrayObject($my_array);
$it = $ao->getIterator();
// looping
while($it->valid()) {
    echo "Under key {$it->key()} is value {$it->current()}";
    $it->next();
}

ArrayObject
ArrayIterator