Splitting number

jc94062

I have a set of numbers being put into a table, such as 598000, 13487517, I want to split to for easy display into

598,000
13,487,517

but can't work on something like putting in a comma every 3 numbers because with a number like 598000 I'd get ,598,000. I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips on how to do that.

Also, quick question about mysql, whats the maximum length of mediumtext?

Thanks for any help

brandonschnell

1) use the php function number_format()
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.number-format.php

2) about 16,777,215 bytes

jc94062

Thanks, I'll take a look, and 16.7mb?
That should be plenty!

jc94062

I've tried using number_format() but as I'm displaying it in a table have landed with basically this...

{

$puntas = $myrow["points"];
$showpoints = number_format($puntas);

printf ("<tr><td align=center>%s</td></tr>\n",
$showpoints);

}

while

($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($roster));

echo "</table>\n";

}

where $roster is a simple select statement...

In the table I end up with everything as it should be, expect for the top line where the other fields are blank (I chopped them out of the above code to make it simpler) expect for points which has a 0.

I know it must be because I'm using a variable and not a $myrow["something"] type thing, but unless I try to go into another field and then use eval() (which I can't get to work) or redo the table so that the number gets inserted correctly I have to use that variable...

Thanks for any help

brandonschnell

you haven't quite explained your problem, but one issue is with the do/while control statements.

on the first time through the loop you're using variables before fetching them from the array.

try:

while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($roster))
{
$puntas = $myrow["points"];
$showpoints = number_format($puntas);

printf ("<tr><td align=center>%s</td></tr>\n",
$showpoints);
}

jc94062

Thanks, that solves it great 🙂

kparker

While you're doing that, you might as well clean up all your "middleman" variables. Consider how many steps there are between the data in the associative array and the actual displaying of it, in your original code:

$puntas = $myrow["points"];
$showpoints = number_format($puntas);
printf ("<tr>"<td align=center>%s"</td>"</tr>\n", $showpoints);

Unless you're doing something else with those intermediate value that you aren't showing here, you might just as well say:

printf ("<tr>"<td align=center>%s"</td>"</tr>\n", number_format( $myrow['points']));

jc94062

ah!
Thats the other thing I thought about, but I'm not great at that kinda stuff, tends to tie me in parse knots all night :-)

Thanks

kparker

Yes, well, everyone's individual needs may vary, and certainly I'm not opposed to untangling a particularly complicated expression to clarify it. However, I don't think assignments, function calls, and array references ought to stay too complicated for any programmer after the first few weeks of study--programming life will be just too painful if one can't overcome that particular hurdle. One of my favorite quotes in this regard is from St. Exupery:

   The designer knows he is finished, not when there is nothing
   left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Yes, this is an ideal, and there may be many valid reasons why we can't get there in a particular case, but it ought to at least influence the direction of our design and programming activity.

Or consider this from Eric S. Raymond:

   Ugly programs are like ugly suspension bridges: they're much
   more likely to collapse than pretty ones, because the way
   humans (especially engineer-humans) perceive beauty is
   intimately related to our ability to process and understand
   complexity. A language that makes it hard to write elegant
   code makes it hard to write good code.

In short, I think it ought to niggle at you (as apparently it does) to do things like pass that value through several different placeholders on the way to its final destination.

jc94062

Well I'd certainly agree with that, but this is just a part time thing for the past 6 months...
Being full time in school, with a part time job, while revising for my exams means I can't spend enough time on it atm (although I was working on it til 5am this morning)
So while it does niggle at me - I have to wait until I have more spare time to act on it in general :-)

Anyways, as we're on the subjet I don't suppose you'd know how to join two queries?

I have two tables, both have names in them, currently getting two queries and two while loops to put them in a pull down menu.

I know now that one way of sorting this is to put them in an array

so I messed about with things like
$fullquery = array_merge($query1, $query2)

but it didn't yield any results! This is probably due to $guery1 and $query2 not being arrays I'm guessing.

Well, I can't find anything that will join two queries up (I can't use a join as the two tables don't share anything in common, seperate names) and I can't manage to change the queries into arrays, so I'm stuck...

I hope some of that makes sense, and I'll have to remember those quotes 😛

kparker

If the two queries don't share anything, you can't really merge the queries, but there's no reason that each loop to read results can't just add to the same pulldown.

jc94062

Problem with that is it doesn't get ordered properly, I can ORDER BY name but then get A-Z and A-Z again giving something like this...

A
D
G
H
U
E
K
L
Z

as opposed to A D E G H K L U Z...

jc94062

I've got it done, but its a long winded way.

I call each table, set the names up in a while loop and send the results to a table called tempmembers, I do the same for the second table, then read from tempmembers to give an overall list (ORDER BY name) and then DELETE FROM tempmembers to clear it.

Its kind of slow at executing (slower than before) but I guess thats to be expected.