Syntactic Sugar in PHP

Question

The foreach would be an implementation of Syntactic Sugar in PHP?

foreach($array as $key=>$values) {
    //Faz algo com as chaves e valores.
}

Answer 1

Yes, if since it would not need the same to achieve such result, as well as many other functions: while and do while.

But, the languages must evolve and this ends up being considered natural over time (after all nobody wants to keep writing repetitions for with if and GOTO).

Answer 2

Virtually all repeating structures (for, foreach, do-while, for-in) of the most modern programming languages can be considered syntactic sugar for the simplest structure of all, the while (which is present in PHP since version 4). So the answer is yes.

It is worth remembering that syntactic sugar are language structures that allow to perform a task in a more "simple" way than by the more "low level" form. For example, if we compare for and while in PHP:

while:

$i = 0;
while ($i <= 10):
    echo $i;
    $i++;
endwhile;

for:

for ($i = 0; $i <= 10; $i++) {
    echo $i;
}

Most people consider the second most simple and readable form. However, in terms of computation, both forms are equivalent.

Answer 3

According to the manual, yes and no.

For example, they are identical:

<?php
$arr = array("one", "two", "three");
reset($arr);
while (list(, $value) = each($arr)) {
    echo "Value: $value<br />\n";
}

foreach ($arr as $value) {
    echo "Value: $value<br />\n";
}
?>

and

<?php
$arr = array("one", "two", "three");
reset($arr);
while (list($key, $value) = each($arr)) {
    echo "Key: $key; Value: $value<br />\n";
}

foreach ($arr as $key => $value) {
    echo "Key: $key; Value: $value<br />\n";
}
?>

however, they are no longer in that case:

<?php 
$arr = array(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9); 

foreach($arr as $key=>$value) 
{ 
    unset($arr[$key + 1]); 
    echo $value . PHP_EOL; 
} 
?> 

Output: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

and in that:

<?php 
$arr = array(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9); 

while (list($key, $value) = each($arr)) 
{ 
    unset($arr[$key + 1]); 
    echo $value . PHP_EOL; 
} 
?> 

Output: 1 3 5 7 9