Format table: which fork do I use?

msore

I have a select statement that returns this table:
category_id -> category_name -> product_name -> product_url

1 -> Business Products ->Address Labels ->http://www.easiestbiz.com/
1 -> Business Products ->Business Cards ->http://www.easiestbiz.com/

5 -> Wedding and Invitation ->Lined Invitation Envelopes-> http://www.easiestbiz.com/
5 ->Wedding and Invitation ->Printed Invitation Envelopes ->http://www.easiestbiz.com/

13 ->Holiday and Cards ->Holiday Cards ->http://www.easiestbiz.com/
13 ->Holiday and Cards ->Holiday Custom/Logo ->http://www.easiestbiz.com/

I would like to format the output like this:

Business Products
Address Labels
Business Cards

Wedding and Invitation
Lined Invitation Envelopes
ect....

Ive tried every combination of counters, for, while loop but can bring it all together. I only want the category name once and the products underneath.

Any help??

Anon

Add an ORDER BY clause to your query to get all of your data grouped together, then do something like this:

$current_cat = ""; //

for ($i = 1; $i <= $row_count; $i++) {
if ($current_cat != $row[1]["category_name"]) {
$current_cat = $row[1]["category_name"];
// Display the category name
}
//Display the rest of the fields
}

Using $current_cat and the ORDER BY clause will allow you to know when you are on a row in a new category.

msore

Ok,
I had sql statment ordered by category_id
So all categories are grouped.

i used mysql_fetch_rows to set $row[n] arrays

so you set $current_cat=""

for statement begins row counting so that script continues until $i=$row_count

the if statement checks to see if $current_cat is not equal to 'row[1]["$category_name"]

on the first pass this will return true so $current_cat = row[1]["$category_name"]
print $current_cat;

back to for loop
now current_cat==row[1]["$category_name"]
if statement returns false...

heres where I fall down,
how do I print all product_names associated with the $current_cat?
how do I get to the next row that starts a new category_name??

thanks, you've helped a bunch already.

msore

is this closer?

$row_count=mysql_num_rows($result);
$row=mysql_fetch_row($result);
$current_cat = "";
for ($i = 0; $i <= $row_count; $i++) {
if ($current_cat != $row[$i]["category_name"]) {
$current_cat = $row[$i]["category_name"];

echo "<tr><td>". $current_cat ."</td></tr>\n";
};
echo "<tr><td>". $row[$i]["product_name"] ."</td></tr>\n";
};

msore

got it!

echo "<table>\n";

$row_count=mysql_num_rows($result);
$current_cat = "";

for ($i = 1; $i <= $row_count; $i++) {
$row=mysql_fetch_row($result);
if ($current_cat != $row[1]) {
$current_cat = $row[1];
printf ("<tr><td>%s</td></tr>\n", $current_cat);
};
printf ("<tr><td>%s</td></tr>", $row[2]);
};
thanks Rob