Question

I am a beginner to MySQL here. I am looking to create a table which resembles an actual plate of rows and columns, from A1 through C22 (I will call these coordinates as wells). The result of MySQL script looks similar like the arrangement shown below (I actually want to draw a table here with each well occupying a cell for illustrative purposes but this can do):

A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 A10 A11 A12 A13 A14 A15 A16 A17 A18 A19 A20 A21 A22

B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 B9 B10 B11 B12 B13 B14 B15 B16 B17 B18 B19 B20 B21 B22

C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22

In the actual database, the data containing A1 through A22 & C1 through C22 exist, and for that matter, they must be displayed in the form of italics as shown in the table above.
I have tried to create an array (I will call it $arr) containing A1 through C22, and compare that array to another array of the database which contains A1 through A22 & C1 through C22( I will call it $result). I used array_intersect to find an intersection between the element of $arr and the array from the database. If it exists, that element from $arr must go in italics.

This is how my script goes. I know it is garbage but I tried..

<?php
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","root","1234");

mysql_select_db("inhouse_collection", $con) or die (mysql_error());

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * from ft7 ORDER BY SUBSTRING(Plate_Loc, 1, 1) ,SUBSTRING(Plate_Loc, 2)+0"); 

$arr=array("A1","A2","A3","A4","A5","A6","A7","A8","A9","A10","A11","A12","A13","A14","A15","A16","A17","A18","A19","A20","A21","A22","B1","B2","B3","B4","B5","B6","B7","B8","B9","B10","B11","B12","B13","B14","B15","B16","B17","B18","B19","B20","B21","B22","C1","C2","C3","C4","C5","C6","C7","C8","C9","C10","C11","C12","C13","C14","C15","C16","C17","C18","C19","C20","C21","C22");

echo "<table border='1'>";

echo "<tr>"; 

$z= 0;

for( $i=0; $arr[$z++]; $i = ($i+1)) {
    if( array_intersect( $arr[$z-1], $result(Plate_Loc)) {
        echo "<td><i>". $arr[$z-1] ."</i></td>";
    }
    else
        echo "<td>" . $arr[$z-1] . "</td>";

    if($i == 21) 
        echo "</tr><tr>"; 
}

echo "</tr>";

echo "</table>";
?>
</div>
</html>

Answer 1

first fetch all data in to an array, and then use isset() to se if that key exists in the array

/* Fetch all data in to an array */
$result = mysql_query("SELECT Plate_Loc from ft7 ORDER BY SUBSTRING(Plate_Loc, 1, 1) ,SUBSTRING(Plate_Loc, 2)+0"); 
$list = array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
    $list[$row['Plate_Loc']] = TRUE;
}

echo "<table>";

/* loop trough all rows */
foreach(array('A','B','C') as $row_char)
{
    echo "<tr>";

    /* loop trough all columns */
    foreach(range(1, 22) as $col_nr)
    {
        /* check if this cell was in database */
        if(isset($list[$row_char . $col_nr]))
        {
            echo "<td><i>{$row_char}{$col_nr}</i></td>";
        }
        else
        {
            echo "<td>{$row_char}{$col_nr}</td>";
        }
    }

    echo "</tr>";
}

echo "</table>";