Improving on his last post about creating a bytecode compiler in PHP, the Sankuru blog has a new post in the series looking at extending the basic compiler to add support for if/while and do while logic.

In order to obtain a turing-complete programming language, that is, a language in which we can implement and execute any arbitrary algorithm, that is, that other turing-complete machines can execute too, we now need to add a way of (conditionally) branching, that is, the IF statement, and at least one way of repeating statements, that is the WHILE or the DO WHILE statements.

He includes a simple TL-based script as an end goal for the compiler to be able to execute and shows how to add rules for it to the lexer/parser. Rules for the "if" are relatively simple, but there's a hitch in dealing with embedded "while" statements he had to work around. The post ends with the bytecode results for the sample program and the resulting output from the compiled versions execution.

PHPmaster.com has a new introductory tutorial for those just starting out with PHP (or with programming really) talking about using looping structures for sets of data - for, while/do-while and foreach.

A significant advantage of computers is that they can perform repetitive tasks easily and efficiently. Instead of writing repetitive code you can write a set of statements that processes some data and then have the computer execute them repeatedly by using a construct known as a loop. Loops come in several different flavors in PHP: for, while, do-while, and foreach. I'll introduce you to each of them and show you how they can making repetitive tasks straightforward and easy to maintain.

The tutorial explains a use case for each of the loop types and includes a bit of sample code showing how to put it into practice. It also shares two special keywords that can be used to bypass or break out of your current loop - break and continue.

PHPBuilder.com has posted the eighth part of their introductory "ABCs of PHP" series today. This time the focus is on looping and decision functionality (like if/while/for/etc).

n any given computer language (PHP is no exception) there has to be a way to allow the running code to decide between doing 2 different things. If there wasn't then software would not be able to adapt based on operating conditions, or it wouldn't be able to decide between two different users.

They look at using: if statements and operators, for loops and while loops. When they look at the operators, they talk about the differences between equals/not equals, grater than/less than and two of the boolean operators - AND and OR.

On the HowToForge website, there's a new tutorial that teaches one of the fundamentals of working with PHP (or any language for that matter) - looping.

Let's move towards our today's lecture which is about Loops. There are certain conditions in which you need to execute the same block of code again and again. For example if you want to print ten consecutive equal signs in three lines to make a separator then you could do it with different methods.

The tutorial covers:

• Basic Concept Of Loops
• Types Of Loops (for, while, do/while, and foreach)
• Assignment
• some Related Articles

Code examples are given for all, and a good overview of working with the loops is given.

On the HowToForge website, there's a new tutorial that teaches one of the fundamentals of working with PHP (or any language for that matter) - looping.

Let's move towards our today's lecture which is about Loops. There are certain conditions in which you need to execute the same block of code again and again. For example if you want to print ten consecutive equal signs in three lines to make a separator then you could do it with different methods.

The tutorial covers:

• Basic Concept Of Loops
• Types Of Loops (for, while, do/while, and foreach)
• Assignment
• some Related Articles

Code examples are given for all, and a good overview of working with the loops is given.