Question

Ok so I thought i would put this one out there. I have a list of 25 entries in my db which I would like to display on my page, in list form, in 5 columns with 5 rows.

I prepared a solution, albeit not such an elegant one.

<?php

                            $query = "SELECT * FROM city ORDER BY name ASC";
                            $result = mysql_query($query, $connection);
                            confirm_query($result);

                            echo "<ul class=\"floatleft\">";

                            $counter = 1;
                            while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {

                            if ($counter <= 5) {

                                    echo "<li>{$row["name"]}</li>";
                                    $counter = $counter + 1;

                                        if ($counter == 6) {
                                            echo "</ul>";
                                        }

                                } elseif($counter > 5 && $counter <= 10) {

                                        if ($counter == 6){
                                            echo "<ul class=\"floatleft\">";
                                        }
                                    echo "<li>{$row["name"]}</li>";

                                    $counter += 1;

                                        if ($counter == 11) {
                                            echo "</ul>";
                                        }

                                } elseif($counter > 10 && $counter <= 15) {

                                        if ($counter == 11){
                                            echo "<ul class=\"floatleft\">";
                                        }

                                    echo "<li>{$row["name"]}</li>";

                                    $counter += 1;

                                        if ($counter == 16) {
                                            echo "</ul>";
                                        }
                                } elseif($counter > 15 && $counter <= 20) {

                                        if($counter == 16){
                                            echo "<ul class=\"floatleft\">";
                                        }

                                    echo "<li>{$row["name"]}</li>";

                                    $counter += 1;

                                        if ($counter == 21) {
                                            echo "</ul>";
                                        }

                                } elseif($counter > 20 && $counter <= 25) {

                                    if($counter == 21){
                                        echo "<ul class=\"floatleft\">";
                                    }

                                echo "<li>{$row["name"]}</li>";

                                    $counter += 1;

                                        if ($counter == 26) {
                                            echo "</ul>";
                                        }

                                }

                            }

                        ?>

This will Output the following

<ul class="floatleft">
<li>Belfast</li>
<li>Birmingham</li>
<li>Brighton</li>
<li>Bristol</li>
<li>Cambridge</li>
</ul>
<ul class="floatleft">
<li>Cardiff</li>
<li>Carlisle</li>
<li>Edinburgh</li>
<li>Glasgow</li>
<li>Hull</li>
</ul>
<ul class="floatleft">
<li>Lancaster</li>
<li>Leeds</li>
<li>Leicester</li>
<li>Liverpool</li>
<li>London</li>
</ul>
<ul class="floatleft">
<li>Manchester</li>
<li>Newcastle</li>
<li>Norwich</li>
<li>Nottingham</li>
<li>Oxford</li>
</ul>
<ul class="floatleft">
<li>Plymouth</li>
<li>Portsmouth</li>
<li>Southampton</li>
<li>Swansea</li>
<li>York</li>
</ul>

Does anybody know of a better way of doing this? I’m still new to php, and I kbnow there must be a better, neater way of doing this.

Answer 1

echo '<ul class="floatleft">';
for($i=0;$i<mysql_num_rows($result);$i++){
  $row = mysql_fetch_array($result)

  if($i%5==0)
    echo '</ul><ul class="floatleft">';

  echo "<li>{$row['name']}</li>";
}

echo '</ul>';

Something like this should work.