Count the number of matching post names in foreach loop

Question

I have a simple foreach loop that outputs an ordered list from a CPT 'post_subscribers' and an associated meta key called 'project'.

$theposts = get_posts( array(
    'post_type'   => 'post_subscriber',
    'post_status' => 'publish',
    'numberposts' => -1,
) ); 


echo '<ol>';
    foreach( $theposts as $p ): 

        $project_name = get_post_meta($p->ID, 'project', true);

        echo '<li class="mb-3">';

            echo get_the_title($project_name);
        
        echo '</li>';
    
    endforeach;

echo '</ol>'; 

echo 'Total projects - '. count($theposts)."</br>";

My list will generate:

1. Project title one
2. Project title two
3. Project title two
4. Project title two
5. Project title three
6. Project title one

Total projects - 6

Q) Within my generated ordered list there are several exact matching '$project_name'(s). How can I count the multiple matching '$project_name' entries and display the count for each of them as separate results? (As I have 300+ in my generated list).

EG result: There are 3 projects with the name 'Project title two'.

It seems like a relatively simple task but I can't get my head around it? Many thanks in advance :-)

Answer 1

I would get the count of a variable number of repeated titles by using an indexed array.

$theposts = get_posts( array(
    'post_type'   => 'post_subscriber',
    'post_status' => 'publish',
    'numberposts' => -1,
) ); 

// project titles counter, outside the loop
$project_titles = array();

foreach( $theposts as $p ): 

    $project_name = get_post_meta($p->ID, 'project', true);
    echo '<ol>';
        echo '<li class="mb-3">';
            $project_title = get_the_title($project_name);
            echo $project_title;

            // check if $project_titles contains $project_title already
            if ( array_key_exists( $project_title, $project_titles) ) :
                $project_titles[$project_title]++;
            else : // otherwise, initialize key value pair with 1
                $project_titles[$project_title] = 1;
            endif;
        
        echo '</li>';
    echo '</ol>';    
endforeach;

// loop through and print all
foreach ($project_titles as $project_title => $project_title_count) :
    if ($project_title_count > 1) : // repeated
        echo 'There are ' . $project_title_count . ' projects with the name ' . $project_title . '.<br/>';
    endif;
endforeach;

$project_titles will now store the number of times each title is repeated as a key-value pair. The key will be your project's title, and the value will be the number of times that project's title exists.

EDIT: Removed first code block since it wasn't useful with question update. Updated second block of code to accommodate a variable number of repeated titles.