excluding fields in array

TCovert

This is what I need to do:

When I return an array of records from the database, I want to be able to exclude one field from being displayed after it has been displayed once:

For example:

SELECT id, headline, bodytext, photo FROM stories WHERE section LIKE 'Local' ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 4

So, this will give me back 4 records, conatining id, headline, bodytext and photo.

Out of this, after the first record is shown with a photo, I want the other three to show without the photo field.

Is this possible?

pnoeric

yeah, but not easily with SQL... just loop in PHP and if it's the first time through, use the photo field; otherwise disregard it.

TCovert

Do you have an example of some code that will do this?

pnoeric

sure; in a broad sense:

$flag = 0;

foreach($record as $v) {
  if (!$flag) {
    echo 'the photo field is '.$v[photo];
  } else {
    // don't print the photo field
  }
  $flag++;  // increment is faster than assigning a static value
  echo 'the other fields are  (etc, echo them here)';
}

TCovert

This is my code, I do not see where I would do that here:

$query = "SELECT headline, bodytext, custom3, photocredit, caption FROM stories WHERE section LIKE 'Local' ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 4";

$result = mysql_query($query) or die ("Error in query: $query. " . mysql_error());

$bodytext = ereg_replace ("\n", "<br><BR>", $bodytext);




// if a result is returned
if (mysql_num_rows($result) > 0)
{
        // iterate through resultset
        // print data
        while (list($headline, $bodytext, $custom3, $photocredit, $caption) = mysql_fetch_row($result))
        {
echo "<link rel=stylesheet href=main2.css type=text/css>";
echo "<table width=164 border=0 cellspacing=5 cellpadding=0 align=right>";
echo "<tr>"; 
echo "<td bgcolor=#ffffff width=5><img src='http://www.knoxstudio.com/vgntemplates/ver1/images/spacers/spacer.gif' width=1 height=1></td>";
echo "<td width=7><img src='http://www.knoxstudio.com/vgntemplates/ver1/images/spacers/spacer.gif' width=1 height=1></td>";
echo "<td class=phototext width=130><span class=headline3></span><a href='#'></a><a href='#'><img src='../../image/";
echo "$custom3";
echo "' width=130 height=160 alt=PHOTO border=1 vspace=2></a>";
echo "<br>";
echo "$photocredit";
echo "<br>"; 
echo "<br>"; 
echo "$caption";
echo "<br>"; 
echo "<a href='#' class=deeplinks><b>FULL STORY &raquo;</b></a></td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "</table>";
echo "<a href='http://www.thesunlink.com/news/2002/may/0531mounthood.html' class=headline1>";
echo "$headline";
echo "</a><br>";
echo "<span class=abstracttext>";
$body = substr($bodytext,0,400);
     $lastspacepos=strrpos($body,' '); 
  echo "<td>"; 
echo substr($body,0,$lastspacepos) . "...";
echo "\n\n";
///echo "$bodytext";
echo "</span><br>";
echo "<a href='http://www.thesunlink.com/news/2002/may/0531mounthood.html' class=deeplinks>FULL STORY &raquo;</a>";

            echo "<p>";
    }
}
else
{
        echo "No data available";
}

Mega

y on earth do u need soooo many echo statements?

TCovert

Doing that just helps me section out pieces of the puzzle.

Anyway, do you have an idea of how I would do what I need to do, using this code base?

pnoeric

wellllll, my friend, can you adapt the meta code I gave you earlier to your code? it shouldn't be that hard. and, as policy, I'm here to help you learn, not to just rewrite your code to make it work :-)

listen, this is easy, and if you wrote what you just posted, you can do this too. here's the idea... this is what you do right now:

you loop through the articles and display each.
for each article you display a photo.

and all you need to do is modify your code slightly to be:

for each article you display a photo... UNLESS you have already displayed a photo in the past.

the code I posted earlier used the variable $flag to flag when a photo had already been displayed. did you understand the code I posted earlier?

best
Eric

TCovert

I know what the code means, and I think I found where to place it in my code to make it work...but, I do NOT know what expression to use where you have $record...

$flag = 0;

foreach($record as $photo) {
  if (!$flag) {
    echo 'the photo field is '.$photo;
  } else {
    // don't print the photo field
  }
  $flag++;  // increment is faster than assigning a static value
  echo 'the other fields are  (etc, echo them here)';
}

pnoeric

actually, that part isn't important - I'll re-write my code for you this way, do you see how you can adopt it for your code now?

$flag = 0;

while(each story) {
  if (!$flag) {
    // we haven't been here before, so display the photo for this story
  } else {
    // don't print the photo field
  }
  $flag++;  // increment is faster than assigning a static value

  // display the rest of the story (headline, link, body text, whatever) here

} //end while

best
Eric

TCovert

Okay, hopefully this will be the last time I ask for help on this. Here is what I have, and it works, except for the fact that it doesn't echo my values in, such as $caption, $photocredit, $bodytext, etc.):

$flag = 0; 

while(each($row)) { 
if (!$flag) { 
echo "<td class=phototext width=130><span class=headline3></span><a href='#'></a><a href='#'><img src='../../image/";
echo "$custom3"; 
echo "' width=130 height=160 alt=PHOTO border=1 vspace=2></a>";
echo "<br>";
echo "$photocredit";
echo "<br>"; 
echo "<br>"; 
echo "$caption";
} else {  

}
/// don't print the photo field 
$flag++; // increment is faster than assigning a static value 
{
echo "$bodytext";
}

pnoeric

your original code used this for the loop:

if (mysql_num_rows($result) > 0)
{
        // iterate through resultset
        // print data
        while (list($headline, $bodytext, $custom3, $photocredit, $caption) = mysql_fetch_row($result))
        { ... }
}

did you mean to change to while(each($row)) ?

they say god's in the details ;-)

-E

pnoeric

also, your code has weird braces-- you have {} around the echo at the end for no reason that I can see? looks like the { is extra. check out my pseudo-code here, and then be sure your code matches. c'mon, you are so close, you just have to really watch the details ;-)

here's the overall idea, your code should follow this logic and loops:

foreach story {
  if we have't shown the photo before {
     // echo the photo and caption
     // set the flag so we know we have shown a photo now
  } else {
     // don't echo the photo and caption [do nothing]
  }

// echo the rest of the story (body text, byline, headline, whatever)

} // finish looping through each story

-E

TCovert

Okay, now I am all confused. It also probably doesn't help that I am working on two new things to me at a time, I am screwing this up..I know.

Hre is my code, I am doing something really wrong, I know it:

if (mysql_num_rows($result) > 0)
{
        // iterate through resultset
        // print data
        while (list($headline, $bodytext, $custom3, $photocredit, $caption) = mysql_fetch_row($result))
$row = mysql_fetch_row($result);
        {
echo "<link rel=stylesheet href=main2.css type=text/css>";
echo "<table width=164 border=0 cellspacing=5 cellpadding=0 align=right>";
echo "<tr>"; 
echo "<td bgcolor=#ffffff width=5><img src='http://www.knoxstudio.com/vgntemplates/ver1/images/spacers/spacer.gif' width=1 height=1></td>";
echo "<td width=7><img src='http://www.knoxstudio.com/vgntemplates/ver1/images/spacers/spacer.gif' width=1 height=1></td>";


$flag = 0; 

while(each($row)) { 
if (!$flag) { 
echo "<td class=phototext width=130><span class=headline3></span><a href='#'></a><a href='#'><img src='../../image/";
echo "$custom3"; 
echo "' width=130 height=160 alt=PHOTO border=1 vspace=2></a>";
echo "<br>";
echo "$photocredit";
echo "<br>"; 
echo "<br>"; 
echo "$caption";
} else {  

}
/// don't print the photo field 
$flag++; // increment is faster than assigning a static value 
echo "$bodytext";

pnoeric

"It also probably doesn't help that I am working on two new things to me at a time, I am screwing this up..I know. "

you said it exactly. unfortunately, this is one of the fastest ways to mess things up... I should know, I do it all the time ;-) I think "well, as long as I'm in here, let me just tweak this other thing" and of course inadvertently, I mess soemthing else up... argh.

here's the easiest way for you to fix this, I guarantee:

get the code working so that it displays every story and photo, without any of teh stuff to look and see if it's the first photo or not. i.e. get it back to its original state, where it functions properly :-)
did I mention that you need to be absolutely sure it's working correctly before you go any further?
add in my code with the flag stuff. note that this will only ADD a couple of lines to your coed... the $flag=0 part outside the main loop, and the if/else statement... nothing else. the while() part of your code will not change.

hey, do you understand the while() part of your code? it's the section that retrieves each row from the database. if that's working, you don't want or need to change it. the modification you're trying to make (where the photo field is displayed the first time thorugh the loop) has everything to do with deciding what to do with the data AFTER retrieving it.

ok, hope that helps. do what I said above, start at #1, get the coed working THEN make the (small) changes to add the logic!

and review this:

while (we get each row of the story) {
  if (!$flag) {  // if flag is not set, we haven't shown a photo yet
     // echo the photo and caption, etc.
     $flag = 1; // set the flag so we know we have shown a photo now
  } else {
     // if we got here, flag was set, it means we have shown a
     // photo already on a previous loop through
     // don't echo the photo and caption [do nothing]
  }

// echo the rest of the story (body text, byline, headline, whatever)

} // end of while() loop

there's not much else I can do to help you here... you are close but you really gotta take it from the top, one step at a time. i feel like you're kind of throwing a bunch of stuff up at once and hoping it'll work when the pieces land; that's just going to leave you frustrated. if you understand your original code, then you should be able to apply my $flag stuff.

best
Eric

TCovert

I did as you suggested and returned my code to its original working condition, and tested it to make sure.

It gives me 4 records, showing photo for all.

Then I added in the pieces of code you suggested, and tried it again. It just gave me the same output as my original code. Here is what I used...let me know if I overlooked something:

while (list($headline, $bodytext, $custom3, $photocredit, $caption) = mysql_fetch_row($result))

{

echo "<link rel=stylesheet href=main2.css type=text/css>";
echo "<table width=164 border=0 cellspacing=5 cellpadding=0 align=right>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td bgcolor=#ffffff width=5><img src='http://www.knoxstudio.com/vgntemplates/ver1/images/spacers/spacer.gif' width=1 height=1></td>";
echo "<td width=7><img src='http://www.knoxstudio.com/vgntemplates/ver1/images/spacers/spacer.gif' width=1 height=1></td>";
$flag = 0;
if (!$flag) {

echo "<td class=phototext width=130><span class=headline3></span><a href='#'></a><a href='#'><img src='../../image/";
echo "$custom3";
echo "' width=130 height=160 alt=PHOTO border=1 vspace=2></a>";
echo "<br>";
echo "$photocredit";
echo "<br>";
echo "<br>";
echo "$caption";
echo "<br>";
echo "<a href='#' class=deeplinks><b>FULL STORY »</b></a></td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "</table>";
}
else
{
}
$flag = 1;
echo "<a href='http://www.thesunlink.com/news/2002/may/0531mounthood.html' class=headline1>";
echo "$headline";

pnoeric

I see the problem-- but I think you can find it. Tell me, do you understand how the whole '$flag' thing works, that logic? If not, ask me about the part you don't understand.

Did you understand the 'meta code' I posted in my previous message?

I know you'd rather I just tell you ;-) but believe it or not, all this back-and-forth (and the reason I've stuck with this thread) is because it will help you become a better programmer... which is a lot more valuable than me just fixing code for you.

you are SO close.

best
Eric

TCovert

Yeah, I know how the flag works:

The flag is set to zero. If flag is equal to zero then echo the photo, else echo nothing.
Then we set the flag to one.

And what we probably need to do is maybe an

elseif flag = 1 than echo the rest of the stuff.

Is that close, at all?

pnoeric

just about it... if the flag is 0 then it means we haven't displayed a photo; so display a photo and set the flag to 1.

no matter, in the whole loop, we always want to print the story.

now look at your code-- where dose it make sense to set $flag = 0? each time through the loop or before the loop starts?

-Eric

TCovert

Alright!!

I didn't even notice that. We kept looping the flag as 0. Sweet.

I have another quick issue. After the first story, with a photo, the other three stories show in columns instead of one after the other down the page. How do I fix that?