How can I tell I'm at the end of an array loop based on XPath?

[Aegis_Kleais]

I've only recently gotten into XML and XPath (loving it) but I'm stumped as to how I can determine if I'm at the end of a <cfloop> that is based on an array returned from an XPath.  Here's my code

<cfloop array="#xmlSearch( application.config, '/environment/app/meta_data/meta_tags/tag[@name]' )#" index="i">
   <cfset i = xmlParse( i )>
   <cfoutput><meta name="#i.tag.xmlAttributes[ 'name' ]#" content="#i.tag.xmlAttributes[ 'content' ]#"></cfoutput>
  <!--- How can I tell if I'm on the last iteration of this loop? --->
</cfloop>

[Dan_Bracuk]

Set a variable to 1 before you start your loop.  Increment it as the first command in your loop.  Check to see if it's the same as the length of your array.

[Adam Cameron.]

I recomment not using that array-looping construct if you need to know which element you're at (eg: the first one, the fifth one, the last one), as CF - foolishly - does not expose this to you.  Plus Adobe incorrectly used "index" to refer to the array element.

Just use a normal for() loop:

for (i=1; i <= arrayLen(a); i++){

     // stuff goes here

}

Or the tag equivalent:

<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#arrayLen(a)#">

     <!--- stuff goes here --->

</cfloop>

--

Adam

[Aegis_Kleais]

So, staying with a completely numeric loop, I would have to do additional steps of setting information.  There's nothing more optimized than that?

<cfloop from="1" to="#arrayLen( xmlSearch( application.config, 'environment/app/meta_data/meta_tags/tag[@name]' )#" index="j">

     ...

</cfloop>

Well, this raises a different question.  In my xmlSearch() function, you can see that I only want 'tag' elements that have a 'name' attribute.  So if my loop counter starts at 1, this isn't necessarily the same index I could use to just specify it as an xmlChild such as:

application.config[ 'environment' ][ 'app' ][ 'meta_data' ][ 'meta_tags' ].xmlChildren[ j ].xmlAttributes[ 'name' ]

So how would I stick with a numeric loop (which I could easily determine if I'm at the end of), but also get the appropriate index?

The only way I could think of (and it would again require additional coding) is to loop through ALL tags, and then perform additional internal conditional checking to see if the current node has a 'name' attribute.

[Aegis_Kleais]

OK, here's what I came up with:

<cfloop from="1" to="#arrayLen( xmlSearch( application.config, '/environment/app/meta_data/meta_tags/tag' ) )#" index="j">

                                                                                          <cfset k = application.config[ 'environment' ][ 'app' ][ 'meta_data' ][ 'meta_tags' ].xmlChildren[ j ]>

                                                                                          <cfset k = xmlParse( k )>

                                                                                          <cfif structKeyExists( k.tag.xmlAttributes, 'name' )>

                                                                                                    <cfoutput><meta name="#k.tag.xmlAttributes[ 'name' ]#" content="#k.tag.xmlAttributes[ 'content' ]#"><cfif j lt arrayLen( xmlSearch( application.config, '/environment/app/meta_data/meta_tags/tag' ) )>#chr( 10 )##repeatString( chr( 9 ), 2 )#</cfif></cfoutput>

                                                                                          </cfif>

</cfloop>

[Adam Cameron.]

You put your xmlSearch() result into a variable, then loop over the variable.  That way you get to both use the variable as the loop control and access it in the loop:

a = xmlSearch(stuff);

for (i=1; i <= arrayLen(a); i++){

    thisElement = a;

    // etc

}

--

Adam