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{section}, {sectionelse}

A {section} is for looping over sequentially indexed arrays of data, unlike {foreach} which is used to loop over a single associative array. Every {section} tag must be paired with a closing {/section} tag.

Note

The {foreach} loop can do everything a {section} loop can do, and has a simpler and easier syntax. It is usually preferred over the {section} loop.

Note

{section} loops cannot loop over associative arrays, they must be numerically indexed, and sequential (0,1,2,...). For associative arrays, use the {foreach} loop.

Attributes

Attribute Name Required Description
name Yes The name of the section
loop Yes Value to determine the number of loop iterations
start No The index position that the section will begin looping. If the value is negative, the start position is calculated from the end of the array. For example, if there are seven values in the loop array and start is -2, the start index is 5. Invalid values (values outside of the length of the loop array) are automatically truncated to the closest valid value. Defaults to 0.
step No The step value that will be used to traverse the loop array. For example, step=2 will loop on index 0, 2, 4, etc. If step is negative, it will step through the array backwards. Defaults to 1.
max No Sets the maximum number of times the section will loop.
show No Determines whether to show this section (defaults to true)

Option Flags

Name Description
nocache Disables caching of the {section} loop

  • Required attributes are name and loop.

  • The name of the {section} can be anything you like, made up of letters, numbers and underscores, like PHP variables.

  • {section}'s can be nested, and the nested {section} names must be unique from each other.

  • The loop attribute, usually an array of values, determines the number of times the {section} will loop. You can also pass an integer as the loop value.

  • When printing a variable within a {section}, the {section} name must be given next to variable name within [brackets].

  • {sectionelse} is executed when there are no values in the loop variable.

  • A {section} also has its own variables that handle {section} properties. These properties are accessible as: {$smarty.section.name.property} where "name" is the attribute name.

  • {section} properties are index, index_prev, index_next, iteration, first, last, rownum, loop, show, total.

assign() an array to Smarty

Examples

<?php
$data = [1000, 1001, 1002];
$smarty->assign('custid', $data);

The template that outputs the array

{* this example will print out all the values of the $custid array *}
{section name=customer loop=$custid}
{section customer $custid} {* short-hand *}
  id: {$custid[customer]}<br />
{/section}
<hr />
{*  print out all the values of the $custid array reversed *}
{section name=foo loop=$custid step=-1}
{section foo $custid step=-1} {* short-hand *}
  {$custid[foo]}<br />
{/section}

The above example will output:

id: 1000<br />
id: 1001<br />
id: 1002<br />
<hr />
id: 1002<br />
id: 1001<br />
id: 1000<br />

{section name=foo start=10 loop=20 step=2}
  {$smarty.section.foo.index}
{/section}
<hr />
{section name=bar loop=21 max=6 step=-2}
  {$smarty.section.bar.index}
{/section}

The above example will output:

10 12 14 16 18
<hr />
20 18 16 14 12 10

The name of the {section} can be anything you like, see PHP variables. It is used to reference the data within the {section}.

{section name=anything loop=$myArray}
  {$myArray[anything].foo}
  {$name[anything]}
  {$address[anything].bar}
{/section}

This is an example of printing an associative array of data with a {section}. Following is the php script to assign the $contacts array to Smarty.

<?php
$data = [
      ['name' => 'John Smith', 'home' => '555-555-5555',
            'cell' => '666-555-5555', 'email' => 'john@myexample.com'],
      ['name' => 'Jack Jones', 'home' => '777-555-5555',
            'cell' => '888-555-5555', 'email' => 'jack@myexample.com'],
      ['name' => 'Jane Munson', 'home' => '000-555-5555',
            'cell' => '123456', 'email' => 'jane@myexample.com']
];
$smarty->assign('contacts',$data);

The template to output $contacts

{section name=customer loop=$contacts}
<p>
  name: {$contacts[customer].name}<br />
  home: {$contacts[customer].home}<br />
  cell: {$contacts[customer].cell}<br />
  e-mail: {$contacts[customer].email}
</p>
{/section}

The above example will output:

<p>
  name: John Smith<br />
  home: 555-555-5555<br />
  cell: 666-555-5555<br />
  e-mail: john@myexample.com
</p>
<p>
  name: Jack Jones<br />
  home phone: 777-555-5555<br />
  cell phone: 888-555-5555<br />
  e-mail: jack@myexample.com
</p>
<p>
  name: Jane Munson<br />
  home phone: 000-555-5555<br />
  cell phone: 123456<br />
  e-mail: jane@myexample.com
</p>

This example assumes that $custid, $name and $address are all arrays containing the same number of values. First the php script that assign's the arrays to Smarty.

<?php

$id = [1001,1002,1003];
$smarty->assign('custid',$id);

$fullnames = ['John Smith','Jack Jones','Jane Munson'];
$smarty->assign('name',$fullnames);

$addr = ['253 Abbey road', '417 Mulberry ln', '5605 apple st'];
$smarty->assign('address',$addr);

The loop variable only determines the number of times to loop. You can access ANY variable from the template within the {section}. This is useful for looping multiple arrays. You can pass an array which will determine the loop count by the array size, or you can pass an integer to specify the number of loops.

{section name=customer loop=$custid}
<p>
  id: {$custid[customer]}<br />
  name: {$name[customer]}<br />
  address: {$address[customer]}
</p>
{/section}

The above example will output:

<p>
  id: 1000<br />
  name: John Smith<br />
  address: 253 Abbey road
</p>
<p>
  id: 1001<br />
  name: Jack Jones<br />
  address: 417 Mulberry ln
</p>
<p>
  id: 1002<br />
  name: Jane Munson<br />
  address: 5605 apple st
</p>

{section}'s can be nested as deep as you like. With nested {section}'s, you can access complex data structures, such as multidimensional arrays. This is an example .php script that assigns the arrays.

<?php

$id = [1001,1002,1003];
$smarty->assign('custid',$id);

$fullnames = ['John Smith','Jack Jones','Jane Munson'];
$smarty->assign('name',$fullnames);

$addr = ['253 N 45th', '417 Mulberry ln', '5605 apple st'];
$smarty->assign('address',$addr);

$types = [
           [ 'home phone', 'cell phone', 'e-mail'],
           [ 'home phone', 'web'],
           [ 'cell phone']
         ];
$smarty->assign('contact_type', $types);

$info = [
           ['555-555-5555', '666-555-5555', 'john@myexample.com'],
           [ '123-456-4', 'www.example.com'],
           [ '0457878']
        ];
$smarty->assign('contact_info', $info);

In this template, $contact_type[customer] is an array of contact types for the current customer.

{section name=customer loop=$custid}
<hr>
  id: {$custid[customer]}<br />
  name: {$name[customer]}<br />
  address: {$address[customer]}<br />
  {section name=contact loop=$contact_type[customer]}
    {$contact_type[customer][contact]}: {$contact_info[customer][contact]}<br />
  {/section}
{/section}

The above example will output:

<hr>
  id: 1000<br />
  name: John Smith<br />
  address: 253 N 45th<br />
    home phone: 555-555-5555<br />
    cell phone: 666-555-5555<br />
    e-mail: john@myexample.com<br />
<hr>
  id: 1001<br />
  name: Jack Jones<br />
  address: 417 Mulberry ln<br />
    home phone: 123-456-4<br />
    web: www.example.com<br />
<hr>
  id: 1002<br />
  name: Jane Munson<br />
  address: 5605 apple st<br />
    cell phone: 0457878<br />

Results of a database search (eg ADODB or PEAR) are assigned to Smarty

<?php
$sql = 'select id, name, home, cell, email from contacts '
      ."where name like '$foo%' ";
$smarty->assign('contacts', $db->getAll($sql));

The template to output the database result in a HTML table

<table>
    <tr><th>&nbsp;</th><th>Name></th><th>Home</th><th>Cell</th><th>Email</th></tr>
    {section name=co loop=$contacts}
      <tr>
        <td><a href="view.php?id={$contacts[co].id}">view<a></td>
        <td>{$contacts[co].name}</td>
        <td>{$contacts[co].home}</td>
        <td>{$contacts[co].cell}</td>
        <td>{$contacts[co].email}</td>
      <tr>
    {sectionelse}
      <tr><td colspan="5">No items found</td></tr>
    {/section}
</table>

.index

index contains the current array index, starting with zero or the start attribute if given. It increments by one or by the step attribute if given.

Note

If the step and start properties are not modified, then this works the same as the iteration property, except it starts at zero instead of one.

Note

$custid[customer.index] and $custid[customer] are identical.

{section name=customer loop=$custid}
  {$smarty.section.customer.index} id: {$custid[customer]}<br />
{/section}

The above example will output:

0 id: 1000<br />
1 id: 1001<br />
2 id: 1002<br />

.index_prev

index_prev is the previous loop index. On the first loop, this is set to -1.

.index_next

index_next is the next loop index. On the last loop, this is still one more than the current index, respecting the setting of the step attribute, if given.

<?php
    $data = [1001,1002,1003,1004,1005];
    $smarty->assign('rows',$data);

Template to output the above array in a table

{* $rows[row.index] and $rows[row] are identical in meaning *}
<table>
  <tr>
    <th>index</th><th>id</th>
    <th>index_prev</th><th>prev_id</th>
    <th>index_next</th><th>next_id</th>
  </tr>
{section name=row loop=$rows}
  <tr>
    <td>{$smarty.section.row.index}</td><td>{$rows[row]}</td>
    <td>{$smarty.section.row.index_prev}</td><td>{$rows[row.index_prev]}</td>
    <td>{$smarty.section.row.index_next}</td><td>{$rows[row.index_next]}</td>
  </tr>
{/section}
</table>

The above example will output a table containing the following:

    index  id    index_prev prev_id index_next next_id
    0      1001  -1                 1          1002
    1      1002  0          1001    2          1003
    2      1003  1          1002    3          1004
    3      1004  2          1003    4          1005
    4      1005  3          1004    5

.iteration

iteration contains the current loop iteration and starts at one.

Note

This is not affected by the {section} properties start, step and max, unlike the index property. iteration also starts with one instead of zero unlike index. rownum is an alias to iteration, they are identical.

<?php
// array of 3000 to 3015
$id = range(3000,3015);
$smarty->assign('arr', $id);

Template to output every other element of the $arr array as step=2

{section name=cu loop=$arr start=5 step=2}
  iteration={$smarty.section.cu.iteration}
  index={$smarty.section.cu.index}
  id={$custid[cu]}<br />
{/section}

The above example will output:

iteration=1 index=5 id=3005<br />
iteration=2 index=7 id=3007<br />
iteration=3 index=9 id=3009<br />
iteration=4 index=11 id=3011<br />
iteration=5 index=13 id=3013<br />
iteration=6 index=15 id=3015<br />

Another example that uses the iteration property to output a table header block every five rows.

<table>
    {section name=co loop=$contacts}
      {if $smarty.section.co.iteration is div by 5}
        <tr><th>&nbsp;</th><th>Name></th><th>Home</th><th>Cell</th><th>Email</th></tr>
      {/if}
      <tr>
        <td><a href="view.php?id={$contacts[co].id}">view<a></td>
        <td>{$contacts[co].name}</td>
        <td>{$contacts[co].home}</td>
        <td>{$contacts[co].cell}</td>
        <td>{$contacts[co].email}</td>
      <tr>
    {/section}
</table>

An example that uses the iteration property to alternate a text color every third row.

<table>
  {section name=co loop=$contacts}
    {if $smarty.section.co.iteration is even by 3}
      <span style="color: #ffffff">{$contacts[co].name}</span>
    {else}
      <span style="color: #dddddd">{$contacts[co].name}</span>
    {/if}
  {/section}
</table>

Note

The "is div by" syntax is a simpler alternative to the PHP mod operator syntax. The mod operator is allowed: {if $smarty.section.co.iteration % 5 == 1} will work just the same.

Note

You can also use "is odd by" to reverse the alternating.

.first

first is set to TRUE if the current {section} iteration is the initial one.

.last

last is set to TRUE if the current section iteration is the final one.

This example loops the $customers array, outputs a header block on the first iteration and on the last outputs the footer block. Also uses the total property.

{section name=customer loop=$customers}
  {if $smarty.section.customer.first}
    <table>
    <tr><th>id</th><th>customer</th></tr>
  {/if}

  <tr>
    <td>{$customers[customer].id}}</td>
    <td>{$customers[customer].name}</td>
  </tr>

  {if $smarty.section.customer.last}
    <tr><td></td><td>{$smarty.section.customer.total} customers</td></tr>
    </table>
  {/if}
{/section}

.rownum

rownum contains the current loop iteration, starting with one. It is an alias to iteration, they work identically.

.loop

loop contains the last index number that this {section} looped. This can be used inside or after the {section}.

{section name=customer loop=$custid}
  {$smarty.section.customer.index} id: {$custid[customer]}<br />
{/section}
There are {$smarty.section.customer.loop} customers shown above.

The above example will output:

0 id: 1000<br />
1 id: 1001<br />
2 id: 1002<br />
There are 3 customers shown above.

.show

show is used as a parameter to section and is a boolean value. If FALSE, the section will not be displayed. If there is a {sectionelse} present, that will be alternately displayed.

Boolean $show_customer_info has been passed from the PHP application, to regulate whether this section shows.

{section name=customer loop=$customers show=$show_customer_info}
  {$smarty.section.customer.rownum} id: {$customers[customer]}<br />
{/section}

{if $smarty.section.customer.show}
  the section was shown.
{else}
  the section was not shown.
{/if}

The above example will output:

1 id: 1000<br />
2 id: 1001<br />
3 id: 1002<br />

the section was shown.

.total

total contains the number of iterations that this {section} will loop. This can be used inside or after a {section}.

{section name=customer loop=$custid step=2}
  {$smarty.section.customer.index} id: {$custid[customer]}<br />
{/section}
   There are {$smarty.section.customer.total} customers shown above.

See also {foreach}, {for}, {while} and $smarty.section.