From While Loop to valid table markup

[tomhumf]

Hi,

I was wondering if there is a standard way to output data from while loop into valid table markup. The data can have a varying number of results.

At the moment I am using a counter to create a new row depending on the number of columns. The problem with this is determining when the data ends and finishing the table off properly. It also means a lot of conditionals which I guess isn't great for performance i.e somthing like

if($i=='3'){echo"<tr>";}
if($i=='6'){echo"<tr>";}
etc

Thanks
Tom

[rocknbil]

It seems most people like to use the modulus operator to do this. But here's how I do it.

Basically a counter counts the columns. If it's 0, output <tr> - which is why it's at the top of the loop. When you reach the number of columns you want, at the end of the loop output a </tr>, reset counter to 0, which will output a new <tr> for the next row.

When the data's all done, if $count > 0 and less than number of columns, you output empty cells to fill out the last row.

<?php  
include 'includes/dbconnect.php';  
// Set the number of columns you want  
$num_cols = 3;  
$column_count = 0;  
$select = 'select category from categories order by category'; //alphabetical if text  
//------------------------------------------//  
$result = mysql_query("$select");  
echo '<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">';  
while($array = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {  
 if ($column_count==0) { echo '<tr>'; }  
 echo '<td><a href="yourscript.php?category=' . $array['category'] . '">' . $array['category']. '</a></td>';  
 $column_count++;  
 if ($column_count >= $num_cols) {  
 // end the row, reset the colum counter.  
// Next loop it will create a new row.  
 echo '</tr>';  
 $column_count=0;  
 }  
}  
// On the last row of data, it may not give you three full columns  
// If $column_count is 0, it's good. Otherwise,  
if (($column_count > 0) and ($column_count < $num_cols)) {  
 for ($i=$column_count;$i<$num_cols;$i++) {  
 echo '<td>&nbsp;</td>';  
 }  
 echo '</tr>';  
}  
echo '</table>';  
?>  

One of the modulus solutions [webmasterworld.com]

[tomhumf]

Thanks a lot rocknbil that's working perfectly