Retrieve IDs from custom field, count and display results differently according to count

Question

The function below is inside a single post loop.

I have an array of IDs in a custom field. Such IDs represent related posts. I'm using Advanced Custom Fields (ACV) plugin and I manage the custom metas with it. In this case, to get the related_content meta, I can use the ACV function get_field('related_content') and grab post data from each retrieved post in the related_content field. According to the number of related posts retrieved, I want to display the results slightly different (using larger thumbnails or no thumbnails at all, etc.). So I came up with the php you see below. However, I'm not sure if this is efficiently optimized or can be written better. Would you mind checking it out?

I am aware this is not strictly a Wordpress question but also PHP/Database related, but since it's related to wordpress objects, database and functions I thought it would be appropriate to post here. Maybe there's a better way to query WP for what I want... thank you

echo '<ul>';
foreach( get_field('related_content') as $post_object) :
         $post_type = get_post_type_object(get_post_type($post_object->ID));
         for ($i = 0; $i <count($post_object); $i++ ) {
               if ($i == 0 && $i < 4 ) { 
                   printf('<li class="large"><a target="_blank" hre= "'.get_permalink($post_object->ID).'">'.get_the_post_thumbnail($post_object->ID, 'small').'</li><span class="thumb-cat">'.$post_type->labels->singular_name.'</span><span class="thumb-title">'.get_the_title($post_object->ID).'</span></a></li>');
               }
               elseif ($i > 3 && $i < 5 ) { 
                       printf('<li class="medium"><a target="_blank" href="'.get_permalink($post_object->ID).'">'.get_the_post_thumbnail($post_object->ID, 'smallest').'</li><span class="thumb-cat">'.$post_type->labels->singular_name.'</span><span class="thumb-title">'.get_the_title($post_object->ID).'</span></a></li>');
               }
               elseif ($i > 6 ) { 
                       printf('<li class="small"><a target="_blank" href="'.get_permalink($post_object->ID).'"><span class="thumb-cat">'.$post_type->labels->singular_name.'</span><span class="thumb-title">'.get_the_title($post_object->ID).'</span></a></li>');
               }
         }
endforeach; 
echo'</ul>';

Answer 1

I answer to myself, since this code is working better (previous had an issue) and also I removed a useless "for":

echo '<ul class="related-content">';
$count = 0;
foreach(get_field('related_content') as $post_object) :
        $count++;
        if ($count > 0 && $count < 4 ) { 
            printf('<li class="large"><a target="_blank" title="'.get_the_title($post_object->ID).'" href="'.get_permalink($post_object->ID).'"><span style="display: block" title="'.get_the_title($post_object->ID).'">'.get_the_post_thumbnail($post_object->ID, 'small').'</span><span class="thumb-title">'.get_the_title($post_object->ID).'</span></a></li>');
            }
            elseif ($count > 3 && $count < 6 ) { 
                    printf('<li class="medium"><a target="_blank" href="'.get_permalink($post_object->ID).'">'.get_the_post_thumbnail($post_object->ID, 'smallest').'<span class="thumb-title">'.get_the_title($post_object->ID).'</span></a></li>');
            }
            elseif ($count > 6 ){ 
                    printf('<li class="small"><a target="_blank" href="'.get_permalink($post_object->ID).'"><span class="thumb-title">'.get_the_title($post_object->ID).'</span>'. get_field('title_subtitle').'</a></li>');
            }
            endforeach; 
            echo'</ul>';