What is Smarty?
Why use it?
Use Cases and Work Flow
Syntax Comparison
Template Inheritance
Best Practices
Crash Course
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  {foreach} is used to loop over an
   associative array as well a numerically-indexed array,
   unlike {section}
  which is for looping over numerically-indexed arrays only.
  The syntax for
   {foreach} is much easier than
   {section},
   but as a tradeoff it can only be used
   for a single array. Every {foreach} tag must be
   paired with a closing {/foreach} tag.
   
| Attribute Name | Type | Required | Default | Description | 
|---|---|---|---|---|
| from | array | Yes | n/a | The array you are looping through | 
| item | string | Yes | n/a | The name of the variable that is the current element | 
| key | string | No | n/a | The name of the variable that is the current key | 
| name | string | No | n/a | The name of the foreach loop for accessing foreach properties | 
   Required attributes are from and item.
   
   The name of the {foreach} loop can be anything
   you like, made up of letters, numbers and underscores, like
    PHP variables.
   
   {foreach} loops can be nested, and the nested
   {foreach} names must be unique from each other.
   
   The from attribute, usually an array of values,
   determines the number of times {foreach} will loop.
   
   {foreachelse} is executed when there are no
   values in the from variable.
   
      {foreach} loops also have their own variables that handle properties.
      These are accessed with:
      
      {$smarty.foreach.name.property} with
      “name” being the
      name attribute.
      
The name attribute is only required when
      you want to access a {foreach} property, unlike
      {section}.
      Accessing a {foreach} property with name
      undefined does not throw an error, but leads to unpredictable results instead.
      
    {foreach} properties are
    index,
    iteration,
    first,
    last,
    show,
    total.
    
Example 7.5. The item attribute
<?php
$arr = array(1000, 1001, 1002);
$smarty->assign('myArray', $arr);
?>
  
Template to output $myArray in an un-ordered list
<ul>
{foreach from=$myArray item=foo}
    <li>{$foo}</li>
{/foreach}
</ul>
  
The above example will output:
<ul>
    <li>1000</li>
    <li>1001</li>
    <li>1002</li>
</ul>
  
Example 7.6. Demonstrates the item and key attributes
<?php
$arr = array(9 => 'Tennis', 3 => 'Swimming', 8 => 'Coding');
$smarty->assign('myArray', $arr);
?>
  
Template to output $myArray as key/val pair,
   like PHP's foreach.
<ul>
{foreach from=$myArray key=k item=v}
   <li>{$k}: {$v}</li>
{/foreach}
</ul>
  
The above example will output:
<ul>
    <li>9: Tennis</li>
    <li>3: Swimming</li>
    <li>8: Coding</li>
</ul>
  
Example 7.7. {foreach} with associative item attribute
<?php
$items_list = array(23 => array('no' => 2456, 'label' => 'Salad'),
                    96 => array('no' => 4889, 'label' => 'Cream')
                    );
$smarty->assign('items', $items_list);
?>
  
Template to output $items with
   $myId in the url
<ul>
{foreach from=$items key=myId item=i}
  <li><a href="item.php?id={$myId}">{$i.no}: {$i.label}</li>
{/foreach}
</ul>
  
The above example will output:
<ul> <li><a href="item.php?id=23">2456: Salad</li> <li><a href="item.php?id=96">4889: Cream</li> </ul>
Example 7.8. {foreach} with nested item and key
Assign an array to Smarty, the key contains the key for each looped value.
<?php
 $smarty->assign('contacts', array(
                             array('phone' => '1',
                                   'fax' => '2',
                                   'cell' => '3'),
                             array('phone' => '555-4444',
                                   'fax' => '555-3333',
                                   'cell' => '760-1234')
                             ));
?>
  
The template to output $contact.
{foreach name=outer item=contact from=$contacts}
  <hr />
  {foreach key=key item=item from=$contact}
    {$key}: {$item}<br />
  {/foreach}
{/foreach}
  
The above example will output:
<hr /> phone: 1<br /> fax: 2<br /> cell: 3<br /> <hr /> phone: 555-4444<br /> fax: 555-3333<br /> cell: 760-1234<br />
Example 7.9. Database example with {foreachelse}
A database (eg PEAR or ADODB) example of a search script, the query results assigned to Smarty
<?php
  $search_condition = "where name like '$foo%' ";
  $sql = 'select contact_id, name, nick from contacts '.$search_condition.' order by name';
  $smarty->assign('results', $db->getAssoc($sql) );
?>
  
The template which display “None found”
  if no results with {foreachelse}.
{foreach key=cid item=con from=$results}
    <a href="contact.php?contact_id={$cid}">{$con.name} - {$con.nick}</a><br />
{foreachelse}
    No items were found in the search
{/foreach}
  
   index contains the current array index, starting with zero.
  
Example 7.10. index example
{* The header block is output every five rows *}
<table>
{foreach from=$items key=myId item=i name=foo}
  {if $smarty.foreach.foo.index % 5 == 0}
     <tr><th>Title</th></tr>
  {/if}
  <tr><td>{$i.label}</td></tr>
{/foreach}
</table>
  
   iteration contains the current loop iteration and always
   starts at one, unlike index.
   It is incremented by one on each iteration.
  
Example 7.11. iteration and index example
{* this will output 0|1, 1|2, 2|3, ... etc *}
{foreach from=$myArray item=i name=foo}
{$smarty.foreach.foo.index}|{$smarty.foreach.foo.iteration},
{/foreach}
  
   first is TRUE if the current {foreach}
   iteration is the initial one.
  
Example 7.12. first property example
{* show LATEST on the first item, otherwise the id *}
<table>
{foreach from=$items key=myId item=i name=foo}
<tr>
  <td>{if $smarty.foreach.foo.first}LATEST{else}{$myId}{/if}</td>
  <td>{$i.label}</td>
</tr>
{/foreach}
</table>
  
   last is set to TRUE if the current
   {foreach} iteration is the final one.
  
Example 7.13. last property example
{* Add horizontal rule at end of list *}
{foreach from=$items key=part_id item=prod name=products}
  <a href="#{$part_id}">{$prod}</a>{if $smarty.foreach.products.last}<hr>{else},{/if}
{foreachelse}
  ... content ...
{/foreach}
  
   show is used as a parameter to {foreach}.
   show is a boolean value. If
   FALSE, the {foreach} will not be displayed.
   If there is a {foreachelse} present, that will be alternately displayed.
  
   total contains the number of iterations that this
   {foreach}  will loop.
   This can be used inside or after the {foreach}.
  
Example 7.14. total property example
{* show rows returned at end *}
{foreach from=$items key=part_id item=prod name=foo}
{$prod.name}<hr/>
{if $smarty.foreach.foo.last}
  <div id="total">{$smarty.foreach.foo.total} items</div>
{/if}
{foreachelse}
 ... something else ...
{/foreach}
  
   See also {section}
   and  $smarty.foreach.