Question

I’m currently working on a dynamic table below:

echo '<table border=1>';
echo '<tr align="center" width="140"><td>column 1 &rarr;
<br />&darr; column 2</td>';
echo "<td width='70'>{$c1}</td>";
echo "<td width='70'>{$c2}</td>";
echo "<td width='70'>{$c3}</td>";
echo "<td width='70'>{$c4}</td>";
echo "<td width='70'>{$c5}</td>";
echo '</tr>';
for ($i = $min; $i <= $max; $i+=5) {
    echo '<tr align="center">';
    echo '<td>'.$i.'</td>
    <td>'.$c1*$i.'</td>
    <td>'.$c2*$i.'</td>
    <td>'.$c3*$i.'</td>
    <td>'.$c4*$i.'</td>
    <td>'.$c5*$i.'</td>';
    echo '</tr>';
}
echo '</table>';

I was just wondering if there was a more effective less time-consuming method of generating it?

The table is created from the following inputs

min, max, c1, c2, c3, c4, c5

where if for example:

min=30, max=45, c1=5, c2=10, c3=15, c4=20, c5=25

the table might look something like:

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I would take a bit different approach. At first I don’t like the idea of having calculations (even simple ones) and view/result/html code mixed. So I would separate those tasks. Normally in most bigger applications this kind of table generation would not even be possible (like MVC frameworks) or is at least not preferred. Also I moved out the styling of the table.

Next to that I don’t like the numbered values, a list of data looks like an array. I have not enough meta information whether that’s correct so I just made it an array since it looks to make sense. The amount of columns is flexible now also.

View code (so PHP) I always try to keep as compact as possible but readable. Mostly simple code, not many loops, not many different functions just basics. So not a for loop with a specific step because it is not relevant. The view part should just show the data as it gets the data.

<?PHP

//settings
$min=30;
$max=45;
$step=5;
$cols=array(5,10,15,20,25);

//result array
$data=array();

//data calculation
for($i = $min; $i <= $max; $i+=$step) {
    foreach($cols AS $col => $val) {
    $data[$i][$col]=$val*$i;

    }
}

//html generation
?>

<style type="text/css">
    th, td {
        text-align: center;
        vertical-align: top;
    }
</style>
<table border=1>
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th scope="row">column 1 &rarr;</th>
            <?PHP
                foreach($cols AS $val) {
                    echo '<th rowspan=2 scope="col">'.$val.'</th>';
                }
            ?>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th scope="col">&darr; column 2</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <?PHP foreach($data AS $i => $row) { ?>
            <tr scope="row">
                <td><?PHP echo $i; ?></td>
                <td><?PHP echo implode('</td><td>', $row); ?></td>
            </tr>
        <?PHP } ?>
    </tbody>
</table>

Hope parts are useful for your project. Hope there are some. I like to write out quite lots of indents / tabs / newlines but you can always style the HTML as you want off course. Next to that I also always add table head, body and scopes which is different from your question but gives the same output in terms of layout off course as asked.