How do I perform an additional action only on the first iteration of a loop?

Question

I know how to do this... I'll give example code below. But I can't shake the feeling that there's a clever way to accomplish what I want to do without using a variable like $isfirstloop.

$isfirstloop = true;
foreach($arrayname as $value) {
 if ($isfirstloop) {
  dosomethingspecial();
  $isfirstloop = false;
 }
 dosomething();
}

Is there any way to execute dosomethingspecial() only on the first loop, while executing dosomething() on every loop, without introducing a variable like $isfirstloop?

Thanks!

Answer 1

$count = count( $arr );

for ( $i = 0; $i < $count; $i++ ) {
    if ( $i == 0 ) { dosomethingspecial(); }
    doSomething();
}

Answer 2

foreach ($arr as $i => $val)
{
  if ($i == 0) { doSomethingSpecial(); } // Only happens once.
  doSomething(); // Happens every time.
}

Answer 3

Forgive me if I'm missing something, but why not just do the thing you want before the loop?

dosomethingspecial();
foreach($arrayname as $value) {
 dosomething();
}

Answer 4

Hmm... You can reset the array and then see if you're on the first key:

reset($a); foreach($a as $k => $v) {
    if(key($a)==$k) doIt();
}

Answer 5

$elem = reset($arrayname);
dosomethingspecial();
while( ($elem = next($arrayname)) !== FALSE ) {
  dosomething();
}

Answer 6

Your not gaining any performance from the alternative methods. Your method is just fine.