formatting output

Anon

Hi, my problem is that I want to be able to lay out the results from a database query. (php, mySQL) If i return say the first 4 results I can get it to lay out the results in a simple table, so that they are stacked like this with the relevant html tags to split the row:
1
2
3
4

but I want to split the results in to 2 columns, so that it will display the results like this:
1 2
3 4
can anyone tell me how to do this?

I am new to this and can't find an answer cos I don't know where to look.

thanks guys!

Anon

<?php
$link = mysql_connect("localhost", "root");
mysql_select_db("mydb");
$query = "SELECT * FROM mytable LIMIT 0, 4";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$max_columns = 2;
print "<table><tr>";
if ($line = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
do {
for ($column=0;$column < $max_columns; $column++) {
echo "<td>$line["row_name"]</td>\n";
$column++;
if ($column == 2) {
echo "</tr><tr>";
$column = 0;
}
} while ($line = mysql_fetch_assoc($result));
}
?>

Anon

Oops, made a mistake

<?php
$link = mysql_connect("localhost", "root");
mysql_select_db("mydb");
$query = "SELECT * FROM mytable LIMIT 0, 4";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$max_columns = 2;
print "<table><tr>";
if ($line = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
do {
for ($column=0;$column < $max_columns; $column++) {
echo "<td>$line["row_name"]</td>\n";
$column++;
if ($column == $max_columns) {
echo "</tr><tr>";
$column = 0;
}
} while ($line = mysql_fetch_assoc($result));
}
?>

tell me if u have any quesitons

Anon

Thanks Radley,

I tried your code swapping the relevant bits for mine but I just kept getting errors. In the end I used the limit function but ended up having to make 2 queries to the database which does work but of course would be inefficient. I am going to put the code up for you to have a look at.

$db_name = "mydb";
$table_name = "mytable";
$connection = @mysql_connect("host","user","pass") or
die("Couldn't Connect.");
$db = @mysql_select_db($db_name, $connection) or die("Couldn't select
database.");

$sql ="SELECT id,date,title,precis FROM $table_name WHERE latest =
\"latest\" order by date DESC LIMIT 0,2";
$sql2 ="SELECT id,date,title,precis FROM $table_name WHERE latest =
\"latest\" order by date DESC LIMIT 2,2";
$total_result = @($sql, $connection) or die("Error #".
mysql_errno() . ": " . mysql_error());
$total_result2 = @($sql2, $connection) or die("Error #".
mysql_errno() . ": " . mysql_error());
$total_found = @mysql_num_rows($total_result);

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($total_result)) {
$id=$row['id'];
$date=$row['date'];
$title=$row['title'];
$precis=$row['precis'];

  $display_block .= "<td>$date<br><a

href=\"latest_detail.php?id=$id\">$title</a><br>$precis</td>";

}

echo "<table width=\"470\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"3\"
cellpadding=\"3\" valign=\"top\">
<tr>
$display_block
</tr>";

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($total_result2)) {
$id=$row['id'];
$date=$row['date'];
$title=$row['title'];
$precis=$row['precis'];

  $display_block_b .= "<td>$date<br><a

href=\"latest_detail.php?id=$id\">$title</a><br>$precis</td>";

}

echo "
<tr>
$display_block_b
</tr>";

?>
</table>