Question

I’ve been reading some q&a but still haven’t managed to build my algorithm, so I’m asking for some help/suggestions on how to.

So, I have a MySQL table and for each mysql table row I want to display it in a table. I want my table to have only 4 cols (meaning the number of rows is variable depending on the data in the database). So, in html table’s (row 1, col 1) would be the data from db table row 1, html (row 1, col 2) data from db table row 2 … (row 2, col 1) data from db table row 5 and so on.

So, the table would be something like:

[data from db row #1] [data from db row #2] [data from db row #3] [data from db row #4]

[data from db row #5] [data from db row #6] [data from db row #7] [data from db row #8]

and so on…

This is what I have to get the data from db:

function get_albums() {
    $albums = array();
    
    $albums_query = mysql_query("SELECT 'albums'.'album_id', 'albums'.'role_id', 'albums'.'timestamp', 'albums'.'name', LEFT('albums'.'description',50) as 'description', COUNT('images'.'image_id') as 'image_count'
    FROM 'albums'
    LEFT JOIN 'images'
    ON 'albums'.'album_id' = 'images'.'album_id'
    GROUP BY 'albums'.'album_id'");
        
    // Loop through all images
    while ($albums_row = mysql_fetch_assoc($albums_query)) {
        // multidimensional array
        $albums[] = array(
                    // associative array
                    'id' => $albums_row['album_id'],
                    'role' => $albums_row['role_id'],
                    'timestamp' => $albums_row['timestamp'],
                    'name' => $albums_row['name'],
                    'description' => $albums_row['description'],
                    'image_count' => $albums_row['image_count']
        );
    }   
    return $albums;
}

To display that info:

$albums = get_albums();

echo '<table>';
for ($i=0; $i<(count($albums)/4); $i++) {
    echo '<tr>';

    //HERE IS WHERE I'M LOST

    foreach ($albums as $album) {
        echo '<a href="view_album.php?aid=',$album['id'],'">',$album['name'],'</a> (',$album['image_count'],') image(s)<br />',$album['description'],'...';

    }
    echo '</tr>';
}
echo '</table>';

So, any ideas?

Answer 1

// keep calculations outside of the for loop if you can

// this will display all albums (count($albums) / 4) times.

$limit = count($albums) / 4;
for ($i = 0; $i < $limit; $i++) {
    echo '<tr>';

    foreach ($albums as $album) {
        echo '<td><a href="view_album.php?aid=' . 
            $album['id'] . '">' . $album['name'] . '</a> (' . 
            $album['image_count'] . ') image(s)<br />' . 
            $album['description'] . '...</td>';
    }
    echo "</tr>";
}

What you’re probably looking for is

<?php
$counter = 0;

foreach($albums as $album) :
    // start new row 
    if ($counter == 0): ?>
        <tr>
    <?php endif; ?>
    <td><a href="view_album.php?aid=<?= $album['id'] ?>"><?= $album['name'] ?></a> (<?= $album['image_count'] ?>) image(s)<br />         
        <?= $album['description'] ?>...</td>
    <?php if ($counter++ == 3) : ?> <!-- 4 records printed in row; end row & reset counter -->
        </tr>
    <?php
        $counter = 0;
    endif;
endforeach;

$lastCount = $counter;
// print remaining empty cells
while ($counter ++ < 4) : ?>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
endwhile;
// close row if necessary
if ($lastCount != 3) :
    </tr>
endif;