Question

I’m having an issue comparing a value in an array with the previous value in the array and then performing the appropriate operation. Some values are identical so I want to strip them out.

What I am trying to have it do is interrogate the variable against the previous value and if they are equal display everything else except said value.

Here is my code. I apologize if its difficult to read. I’m self taught and I do my best…

<?php
// Get Variables from dept.php
$location = $_GET['location'];
$dept = $_GET['dept'];
// Connect to Database
$connect = mysql_connect('localhost', 'UserName', 'Pass');
mysql_select_db('database', $connect);
// Create Recordset       
$iso_sql = " SELECT * FROM `a_qa-iso_data`, `a_qa-iso_category` WHERE `a_qa-iso_data`.Article_Numbers = `a_qa-iso_category`.Article_No AND `a_qa-iso_data`.$location = 1 AND `a_qa-iso_data`.$dept = 1 ORDER BY `a_qa-iso_data`.Article_Numbers, `a_qa-iso_data`.Filename ASC;";
$iso_results = mysql_query($iso_sql, $connect) or die(mysql_error());
$rows_iso_results = mysql_num_rows($iso_results);
// Loop Results
while ($iso_array = mysql_fetch_array($iso_results)) {
    $article = $iso_array['Article_Numbers'];
    $title = $iso_array['Title'];
    $link = $iso_array['Link'];
    $class = $iso_array['Class'];
    $target = $iso_array['Target'];
    $filename = $iso_array['Filename'];
    $header = "<h4>$article - $title</h4>";
    $iso = "<a href=\"$link\" class=\"$class\" target=\"$target\">$filename</a>";
 // Display   
    $next = prev($iso_array);
    if ($next['Article_Numbers'] === $article) {
        echo "$iso";
    }
    else {
        echo "$header $iso";
    }
}
?>

So in short, I am looking for something like:

$article – $title
-$iso

$article – $title
-$iso
-$iso

$article – $title
-$iso
-$iso
-$iso

$article – $title
-$iso

Anyhow any help would be appreciated. I apologize as well if this has been asked before however, I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking and what I have found didn’t seem to be as informative as I would have hoped.

Answer 1

Why not set a temp variable for the value of “previous”?

$previous = null;
while($iso_array = mysql_fetch_array($iso_results)) {
    // code 
    .
    .
    .

    if (!is_null($previous) && $previous['Article_numbers'] == $article) {
        // something
    } else {
        // something else
    }
    $previous = $iso_array;
}

NOTE: You should stop using mysql_* functions. They’re being deprecated. Instead use PDO (supported as of PHP 5.1) or mysqli (supported as of PHP 4.1). If you’re not sure which one to use, read this article.