Question

Here is a very simple Sudoku like HTML table.

What I want is to generate this with PHP considering the following.

Each cell should look like this (or similar):

<!-- Position "a1" -->

<?php
if ($a1_pos_txt !== TRUE){

    echo "<td>" . $numbers["a1_pos"] . "</td>";

}else{

?>

<td><input type="text" name="a1_post" size="1" maxlength="1" /></td>

<?php   
}
?>

This is obviously the the “a1” cell.

Just in case, “c4” and “f9” should look like THIS.

So the table generated by PHP should look like THIS and so on for all the rows.

As I said, and dont want to copy and paste this code and replace a1 for a2 and so on 81 times, I want his table and variables to be dynamically generated with PHP.

I tried to make it as clear as possible with all the code I could provide but please ask if you need any clarifications!!!

NOTE: Sorry for the crappy choice in variables ($a1_pos_txt , $a1_pos and a1_post) no vert friendly 🙂

Answer 1

This should do it:

$lit = range('A', 'J');
echo '<table border="1">';
for($y = 0; $y < 9; $y++) {
    echo '<tr>';
    for($x = 0; $x < 9; $x++) {
        $block = floor($x / 3) + floor($y / 3) * 3;
        $cell  = ($x % 3 + 1) + ($y % 3) * 3;
        echo '<td>'.$lit[$block].$cell.'</td>';
    }
    echo '</tr>';
}
echo '</table>';

Output:

A1 A2 A3 B1 B2 B3 C1 C2 C3
A4 A5 A6 B4 B5 B6 C4 C5 C6
A7 A8 A9 B7 B8 B9 C7 C8 C9
D1 D2 D3 E1 E2 E3 F1 F2 F3
D4 D5 D6 E4 E5 E6 F4 F5 F6
D7 D8 D9 E7 E8 E9 F7 F8 F9
G1 G2 G3 H1 H2 H3 I1 I2 I3
G4 G5 G6 H4 H5 H6 I4 I5 I6
G7 G8 G9 H7 H8 H9 I7 I8 I9

Probably can be simplified down a bit, but should give you what you need. $block is the current 3×3 grid, and $cell is the cell number in that grid.

EDIT

I checked your example and this might not be what you wanted. Apparently you want A for first row, B for second etc, not per 3×3 block. Here’s how you can do that:

echo '<table border="1">';
foreach(range('A', 'J') as $y) {
    echo '<tr>';
    for($x = 1; $x <= 9; $x++) {
        echo '<td>'.$y.$x.'</td>';
    }
    echo '</tr>';
}
echo '</table>';

Output:

A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9
B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 B9
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9
D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 D9
E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E7 E8 E9
F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9
G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 G8 G9
H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 H7 H8 H9
I1 I2 I3 I4 I5 I6 I7 I8 I9
J1 J2 J3 J4 J5 J6 J7 J8 J9