Question

I have this situation where i want to get data from 3 different databases, say events, content and media and the look like this:

events

-------------------------
| e_id  | e_title       |
-------------------------
| 1 | event 1   |
| 2 | event 2   |
| 3 | event 3   |
-------------------------

content

-------------------------
| c_id  | c_title       |
-------------------------
| 1 | first event   |
| 2 | second event  |
| 3 | third event   |
-------------------------

media

-------------------------
| m_id  | m_title       |
-------------------------
| 1 | picture 1 |
| 1 | picture 2 |
| 1 | picture 3 |
-------------------------

Now i want to get the information from event 1, with the three pictures, so i have the following query

$result = mysql_query("
SELECT  events.e_id, events.e_title, content.c_id, content.c_title, media.m_id, media.m_content
FROM events 
INNER JOIN content 
ON events.e_id = content.c_id
INNER JOIN media 
ON events.e_id = media.m_id
WHERE events.e_id = '1'");

Now the point is, when i use

$show = mysql_fetch_assoc($result); 
echo($show['e_title']." - ".$show['m_title'])

I only get picture 1

when i use

while($show = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){ 
echo($show['e_title']." - ".$show['m_title']);}

i get three times event 1

How can i combine this that my output will be something like:

event 1
 * picture 1
 * picture 2
 * picture 3

?

EDIT:

The solution below works fine, but now i have the following that doesn't work

while($show = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){
    if($show['e_title'] !== $last_title){
        echo("<h3>".$show['e_title']."</h3>\n<ul>\n");
    }
    echo("\t<li>".$show['m_title']."</li>\n");
    if($show['e_title'] !== $last_title){
        echo("\t</ul>\n");
    }
    $last_title = $show['e_title'];
}

How can i achieve that my output will be like:

Event 1
 * picture 1
 * picture 2
 * picture 3


More info about event 1 (not shown in example)

?

Answer 1

On every loop iteration, store the most recent used e_title in $last_title and only echo it out if it has changed ($show['e_title'] !== $last_title):

$last_title = "";
while($show = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){ 

  // Display the title if it has changed
  if ($show['e_title'] !== $last_title) {
    echo $show['e_title'] . "\n";
  }
  echo "- " . $show['m_title'] . "\n";

  // Store the title to check in the next loop iteration
  $last_title = $show['e_title'];
}

Update If I understand what you’re trying to do with this, you need to test whether you have a <ul> open and if you do, close it before starting a new <h3> rather than closing it at the end of the loop.

$ul_open = FALSE;
while($show = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){
    if($show['e_title'] !== $last_title){
        // Close an open <ul> if there is one...
        if ($ul_open) {
           echo "</ul>\n";
           $ul_open = FALSE;

           // Output additional info now...
           if (!empty($additional_info)) echo $additional_info;
        }

        // Now output the new header.
        echo("<h3>".$show['e_title']."</h3>\n<ul>\n");

        // And set the flag that there's an open <ul>
        $ul_open = TRUE;

        // And store additional info to use later...
        $additional_info = $show['somecolumn'];
    }
    // output the list item
    echo("\t<li>".$show['m_title']."</li>\n");

    $last_title = $show['e_title'];
}
// Now that the loop is finished, you must close the last remaining <ul>
if ($ul_open) echo("\t</ul>\n");
if (!empty($additional_info)) echo $additional_info;