Identifying the first and last element in an Array

Hi Jerry,

Putting a ! in front of a variable will convert that variable to a true or false value and probably not do what you expect. Here's an example:

$word = "Cat";

print "<p>\$word == Cat: "; // prints: $word == Cat: True
if ($word == "Cat") { print "True"; } else { print "False"; }

print "<p>\$word == Dog: "; // prints: $word == Dog: False
if ($word == "Dog") { print "True"; } else { print "False"; }

print "<p>!\$word == Cat: "; // prints: !$word == Cat: False
if (!$word == "Cat") { print "True"; } else { print "False"; }

print "<p>!\$word == Dog: "; // prints: !$word == Dog: False
if (!$word == "Dog") { print "True"; } else { print "False"; }

For the second two it's actually just comparing if false == whatever value. One easy way around that is just to use the != operator (not equals).

Next, for debugging the code that identifies the first and last word, the best way to debug this (or any issue) is to recreate the problem in the most minimal way on a test page. I have a web server running on my local machine (I use wampserver.com) and keep a file called test.php for this purpose that I can access at any time at: http://localhost/test.php.

Here's some code to reproduce the first/last issue:

$instruction = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.";
$words = split(" ", $instruction);

foreach ($words as $word) {
$isFirst = ($word == reset($words));
$isLast = ($word == end($words));

print "Word: '$word'";
if ($isFirst) { print " (is first)"; }
if ($isLast) { print " (is last)"; }
print "<br/>\n";
}

// Outputs:

In writing the code (which now works) I saw that you had reset() and end() checking $newwords, and I think what you want is to have it checking $words.

Also, I recommend always using curly braces after if statements, you don't technically have to, but it just makes it more clear and prevents errors and unexpected results. eg:
if (!$higher_exceptions[$word]) { $word = strtolower($word); }

I always try to make my code as clear and explicit as possible, leaving no room for confusion or doubt, by either the computer, another programmer, or myself when I come back to look at my code 6 months later and wonder what I was thinking... :)

Hope that helps!