How do I increment the item variable by one in the category layout

Question

I'm creating a layout override for the category layout where I need to list the articles in a 2 column table:

+-----------+------------+
|           |            |
|   item 1  |   item 2   |
|           |            |
+-----------+------------+
|           |            |
|   item 3  |   item 4   |
|           |            |
+-----------+------------+
        ...etc...

but the articles are showing up duplicated:

+-----------+------------+
|           |            |
|   item 1  |   item 1   |
|           |            |
+-----------+------------+
|           |            |
|   item 2  |   item 2   |
|           |            |
+-----------+------------+
        ...etc...

I'm not sure how to increment the item# in the loop to make it show 2 items per row. here is the code I'm dealing with:

<?php if (!empty($this->intro_items)) : ?>
                <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600" border="0" style="width: 580px !important;">
                    <?php foreach ($this->intro_items as $key => &$item) : ?>
                    <?php
                        $key= ($key-$leadingcount)+1;
                        $rowcount=( ((int)$key-1) % (int) $this->columns) +1;
                        $row = $counter / $this->columns ;

                        if ($rowcount==1) : ?>
                    <?php endif; ?>
                    <tr>
                        <td class="item column-<?php echo $rowcount;?><?php echo $item->state == 0 ? ' system-unpublished' : null; ?>">
                        <?php
                            $this->item = &$item;
                            echo $this->loadTemplate('item');
                        ?>
                        </td>
                        <td width="20">&nbsp;</td>
                        <td class="item column-<?php echo $rowcount;?><?php echo $item->state == 0 ? ' system-unpublished' : null; ?>">
                        <?php
                            $this->item = &$item;
                            echo $this->loadTemplate('item');
                        ?>
                        </td>
                    </tr>
                        <?php if (($rowcount == $this->columns) or ($counter ==$introcount)): ?>

                        <?php endif; ?>
                    <?php endforeach; ?>
                </table>

            <?php endif; ?>

Answer 1

You can't create two cells the same time within a foreach loop. Change your code as below,

<?php if (!empty($this->intro_items)) : ?>
    <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600" border="0" style="width: 580px !important;">
        <?php $count = 0; ?>
        <?php foreach ($this->intro_items as $key => &$item) : ?>
            <?php if ($count%2 == 0) : ?>
            <tr>            
            <?php endif; ?>
                <td class="item column-<?php echo $rowcount;?><?php echo $item->state == 0 ? ' system-unpublished' : null; ?>">
                <?php
                    $this->item = &$item;
                    echo $this->loadTemplate('item');
                ?>
                </td>
            <?php if ($count%2 == 0) : ?>
            </tr>           
            <?php endif; ?>
            <?php $count++; ?>
        <?php endforeach; ?>
    </table>
<?php endif; ?>