Posted by deko on 02/27/07 09:59

I need to loop through a number of categories (in object $category) and compare
items (from object $itemdata) to create a list of items organized by category.

foreach ($category as $cat_item)
{
echo $cat_item->cat_name;
foreach ($itemdata as $item_datum)
{
if ($item_datum->category_id == $cat_item->cat_id)
{
echo '--'.$item_datum->item_name;
}
}
}

The output should look something like this:

Apples (cat_name)
-- red (item_name)
-- green
-- small
-- large

Oranges
-- ripe
-- rotten

The $category and $itemdata objects are created using ezSQL:

$category = $db->get_results("SELECT cat_id, cat_name ... FROM Table_A");

$itemdata = $db->get_results("SELECT category_id, item_name ... FROM Table_B");

My question is this:

How do I optimize this?

Once an $item_datum->category_id has been matched to a $cat_item->cat_id, I no
longer need that row ($item_datum) in the $itemdata object, so further
iterations of the nested foreach loop need not include the previously matched
$item_datum.

How do I remove the matched $item_datum from the $itemdata object after it has
been matched?

Will this reduce iterations of the nested foreach loop?

Thanks in advance.

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