Why am I getting this PHP Warning?

Invalid argument supplied for foreach()

Here is my code:

// look for text file for this keyword
if (empty($site["textdirectory"])) {
    $site["textdirectory"] = "text";
}
if (file_exists(ROOT_DIR.$site["textdirectory"].'/'.urlencode($q).'.txt')) {
    $keywordtext = 
     file_get_contents(ROOT_DIR.$site["textdirectory"].'/'.urlencode($q).'.txt');
}
else {
    $keywordtext = null;
}

$keywordsXML = getEbayKeywords($q);

foreach($keywordsXML->PopularSearchResult as $item) {
    $topicsString = $item->AlternativeSearches;
   $relatedString = $item->RelatedSearches;
   if (!empty($topicsString)) {
        $topics =  split(";",$topicsString);
    }
    if (!empty($relatedString)) {
        $related = split(";",$relatedString);
    }

}

$node = array();
$node['keywords'] = $q;

2

$xml = ebay_rss($node);

$ebayItems = array();
$totalItems = count($xml->channel->item);

$totalPages = $totalItems / $pageSize;


$i = 0;
foreach  ($xml->channel->item as $item) {
  $ebayRss = 
    $item->children('http://www.ebay.com/marketplace/search/v1/services');

    if ($i>=($pageSize*($page-1)) && $i<($pageSize*$page)) {
        $newItem = array();
        $newItem['title'] = $item->title;
        $newItem['link'] = buyLink($item->link, $q);
        $newItem['image'] = ebay_stripImage($item->description);
        $newItem['currentbid'] = ebay_convertPrice($item->description);
        $newItem['bidcount'] = $ebayRss->BidCount;
        $newItem['endtime'] = ebay_convertTime($ebayRss->ListingEndTime);
        $newItem['type'] = $ebayRss->ListingType;
        if (!empty($ebayRss->BuyItNowPrice)) {
            $newItem['bin'] = ebay_convertPrice($item->description);
        }
        array_push($ebayItems, $newItem);
    }
    $i++;
}


$pageNumbers = array();
for ($i=1; $i<=$totalPages; $i++) {
    array_push($pageNumbers, $i);
}

3

// get user guides
$guidesXML = getEbayGuides($q);
$guides = array();
foreach ($guidesXML->guide as $guideXML) {
    $guide = array();
    $guide['url'] = makeguideLink($guideXML->url, $q);
    $guide['title'] = $guideXML->title;
    $guide['desc'] = $guideXML->desc;
    array_push($guides,$guide);
}

What causes this warning?

You should check that what you are passing to foreach is an array by using the is_array function

If you are not sure it’s going to be an array you can always check using the following PHP example code:

if (is_array($variable)) {

  foreach ($variable as $item) {
   //do something
  }
}

This means that you are doing a foreach on something that is not an array.

Check out all your foreach statements, and look if the thing before the as, to make sure it is actually an array. Use var_dump to dump it.

Then fix the one where it isn’t an array.

How to reproduce this error:

<?php
$skipper = "abcd";
foreach ($skipper as $item){       //the warning happens on this line.
    print "ok";
}
?>

Make sure $skipper is an array.

Because, on whatever line the error is occurring at (you didn’t tell us which that is), you’re passing something to foreach that is not an array.

Look at what you’re passing into foreach, determine what it is (with var_export), find out why it’s not an array… and fix it.

Basic, basic debugging.

Try this.

if(is_array($value) || is_object($value)){
    foreach($value as $item){
     //somecode
    }
}