Question

Hi I need to build a table with two columns from a mySQL table.
Here is what i have now:

<table>
<?php
$sql = "SELECT field1, field2 FROM tblX" 
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die("\nError Retrieving Records.");
while($row = mysql_fetch_array ($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)){?>
<tr>
   <td>
       <?=$row['field1']?> - <?=$row['field2']?>
   </td>
</tr>
<?php }?>
</table>

This will create one column table like so:

1
2
3
4
5

I need the table to be in two columns like this:

1  4
2  5
3

Is this possible if it is how do I do that?

Answer 1

This should do what you want, if you insist on a table.

Get the mid point:

$mid = ceil(mysql_num_rows($result)/2);

Get an array:

while( $row = mysql_fetch_row($result) ) {
    $list[] = $row; }

Output the rows:

for( $i = 0; $i < $mid; $i++ ) {
    $itemOne = $list[$i];
    $itemTwo = $list[$i + $mid]; 
    // echo them in two tds.
}

I agree with marco, though. You could just as easily list items one to $mid in one div, then $mid to the end in another, and use CSS to float the divs side-by-side. Using tables for formatting purposes is evil.