Wrapping output in an HTML table

Anon

Hi,

I'm trying to output a list of titles from a MySQL database. I can get it to list the titles in one long column in a table, but I would like it to format the list in three equal columns.

Here is my code:

$db=mysql_select_db($db)
or die(mysql_error());
$sql="SELECT mag_title FROM titles WHERE Current = 'Yes' ORDER BY mag_title";
$result=mysql_query($sql);
while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)){
print("<tr><td>");
printf("%s</td></tr>\n",
$row["mag_title"] );

The resulting html output from this code can be seen at:

http://elmo.academyart.edu/intranet/current_mags_db.php

Is there a way to wrap this list so that it displays as three columns? I want to be able to print this page out would like to fit as many titles per page as possible.

Thank you!

John Winsor

angela-sw-uk

There is an answer ... but I can't work it out myself at the moment, but what you need to do is "add a counting facility" which counts through the rows of your array.

When the count=1 then do a <TR> and a <TD>
When count=2 or count=3 then do a <TD> only.

Hope this helps you solve the problem. If I can write the solution I will post it here, but it would take me a few hours to work it out and I'm sure somebody here will be better/quicker/neater than me at it 🙂

angela-sw-uk

This page may be useful:

http://www.bitafterbit.com/english/php/basic/chap08.html

It shows an example like yours I think

Anon

Thank you so much for your help! I'll try this out and let you know how I make out. It's great to know that there's a whole community of people a lot smarter than me out there ready to help out.
john

Anon

A method you can use is the % operator which, if you are using a FOR loop is very handy and extremely easy.

start your table first, and do an itial <tr>, then mod your for counter by the number of columns you want. In the example below i have used 3.

<?php
print "<tr>";
for ($i=0; $i<$limit; $i++)
{
if ($i%3 == 0) print "</tr><tr>";
print "<td>output</td>";
}
print "</tr>";
?>

This will end a row and start another one every three cells.

You can do the same with rows, just change the if statement.

Rich.

Anon

Thanks Rich - that's a great solution.