Question

I have a while loop getting info from a MySQL db, outputting info via php. My code is like this:

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
  $output .= '<tr>' . "\r";
  $output .= '<td>' . $row['lnID'] . '</td>' . "\r";
  $output .= '<td>' . $row['lnLine'] . '</td>' . "\r";
  $output .= '<td>' . $row['lnTitle'] . '</td>' . "\r";
  $output .= '<td>' . $row['cLongName'] . '</td>' . "\r";
  $output .= '</tr>' . "\r";
}

The cLongName can have multiple entries in the database, so it’s outputting data in this form:

lnID  | lnLine  | lnTitle  | cLongName
---------------------------------------
lnID1 | lnLine1 | lnTitle1 | cLongname1
lnID1 | lnLine1 | lnTitle1 | cLongname2
lnID1 | lnLine1 | lnTitle1 | cLongname3
lnID2 | lnLine2 | lnTitle2 | cLongname1
lnID2 | lnLine2 | lnTitle2 | cLongname2
lnID2 | lnLine2 | lnTitle2 | cLongname3
lnID2 | lnLine2 | lnTitle2 | cLongname4
lnID2 | lnLine2 | lnTitle2 | cLongname5

I’d like to have the data in this format:

lnID  | lnLine  | lnTitle  | cLongName
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
lnID1 | lnLine1 | lnTitle1 | cLongname1, cLongname2, cLongname3
lnID2 | lnLine2 | lnTitle2 | cLongname1, cLongname2, cLongname3, cLongname4, cLongname5

I’ve tried bunging in a foreach loop in my while loop but have got nowhere with it. Any ideas or help would be appreciated.

— EDIT —

My MySQL query is as follows:

$result = mysql_query("
  SELECT
    pcdb_line.lnID, pcdb_line.lnLine, pcdb_line.lnTitle,
    pcdb_colourways.cwLine, pcdb_colourways.cwColID1,
    pcdb_colour_name.cID, pcdb_colour_name.cLongName, pcdb_colour_name.cHex
  FROM pcdb_line
  GROUP BY pcdb_line.lnID
  LEFT JOIN pcdb_colourways
  ON (pcdb_line.lnID = pcdb_colourways.cwLine)
  LEFT JOIN pcdb_colour_name
  ON (pcdb_colour_name.cID = pcdb_colourways.cwColID1)
  LIMIT 50
");

As per ADW’s answer, I tried group_concat on just the cLongName, on all pcdb_colour_name‘s but it’s not giving me any output.

— EDIT 2 —

Changing the SELECT query to this:

  $result = mysql_query("
    SELECT
      pcdb_line.lnID, pcdb_line.lnLine, pcdb_line.lnTitle,
      pcdb_colourways.cwLine, pcdb_colourways.cwColID1,
      pcdb_colour_name.cID, group_concat(pcdb_colour_name.cLongName) AS cLongNames, pcdb_colour_name.cHex
    FROM pcdb_line
    LEFT JOIN pcdb_colourways
    ON (pcdb_line.lnID = pcdb_colourways.cwLine)
    LEFT JOIN pcdb_colour_name
    ON (pcdb_colour_name.cID = pcdb_colourways.cwColID1)
    GROUP BY pcdb_line.lnID
    LIMIT 50
  ");

Allowed me to use $output .= "\t\t" . '<td>' . $row['cLongNames'] . '</td>' . "\r"; on my php, giving me the required output.

Answer 1

You’d probably be better modifying your database query to something like:

select lnID,lnLine,lnTitle,group_concat(cLongName) from table group by lnID,lnLine,lnTitle;