The MultipleIterator class

(PHP 5 >= 5.3.0, PHP 7, PHP 8)

Introduction

An Iterator that sequentially iterates over all attached iterators

Class synopsis

class MultipleIterator implements Iterator {
/* Constants */
public const int MIT_NEED_ANY;
public const int MIT_NEED_ALL;
public const int MIT_KEYS_NUMERIC;
public const int MIT_KEYS_ASSOC;
/* Methods */
public __construct(int $flags = MultipleIterator::MIT_NEED_ALL | MultipleIterator::MIT_KEYS_NUMERIC)
public attachIterator(Iterator $iterator, string|int|null $info = null): void
public containsIterator(Iterator $iterator): bool
public current(): array
public detachIterator(Iterator $iterator): void
public getFlags(): int
public key(): array
public next(): void
public rewind(): void
public setFlags(int $flags): void
public valid(): bool
}

Predefined Constants

MultipleIterator::MIT_NEED_ANY

Do not require all sub iterators to be valid in iteration.

MultipleIterator::MIT_NEED_ALL

Require all sub iterators to be valid in iteration.

MultipleIterator::MIT_KEYS_NUMERIC

Keys are created from the sub iterators position.

MultipleIterator::MIT_KEYS_ASSOC

Keys are created from sub iterators associated information.

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User Contributed Notes 1 note

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37
sven at rtbg dot de
9 years ago
This iterator has a misleading name and description - it actually acts as a parallel iterator: You attach one or more iterators with a key, integer or NULL, and when you iterate over the MultipleIterator, as the result for current() you get ALL results from all attached iterators as an array (under the key or integer you attached it with), and the same is true for the key() call.

valid() will be valid if any or all iterators are valid, depending on the setting of the $flags - with ANY, you can iterate over a set of iterators with some of them ending before others, and get NULL results from these iterators until the last iterator is at it's end. With ALL, iteration stops when the first iterator stops delivering results.

next() and rewind() will be called on all attached iterators in every case.

<?php

$it1
= new ArrayIterator(array(1,2,3));
$it2 = new ArrayIterator(array(4,5,6));

$multipleIterator = new MultipleIterator(MultipleIterator::MIT_NEED_ALL|MultipleIterator::MIT_KEYS_ASSOC);

$multipleIterator->attachIterator($it1, 1);
$multipleIterator->attachIterator($it2, 'second');

foreach (
$multipleIterator as $key => $value) {
echo
"Key\n"; var_dump($key);
echo
"Value\n"; var_dump($value);
echo
"---next---\n";
}
?>

Result with PHP 5.5.0 and up:

Key
array(2) {
[1]=>
int(0)
["second"]=>
int(0)
}
Value
array(2) {
[1]=>
int(1)
["second"]=>
int(4)
}
---next---
Key
array(2) {
[1]=>
int(1)
["second"]=>
int(1)
}
Value
array(2) {
[1]=>
int(2)
["second"]=>
int(5)
}
---next---
Key
array(2) {
[1]=>
int(2)
["second"]=>
int(2)
}
Value
array(2) {
[1]=>
int(3)
["second"]=>
int(6)
}
---next---

Note that PHP 5.4 and 5.3 do not support accessing the key() values in foreach loops because they expect them to not be an array - doing so will cause "Warning: Illegal type returned from MultipleIterator::key()" and the result of (int)0 as the key for all iterations.

Without the MultipleIterator::MIT_KEYS_ASSOC flag, the MultipleIterator will create numeric indices based on the order of attachment.
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