Need some logic help

synergy

Looking for some assitance on the logic of how I should code this:

I've got a page that displays deatails of a car, listing each car in inventory. These cars are put into "sections" of the page, each section divided up by a header graphic.

To view the current page check out: http://www.premiercars.com/html/inventory.htm

How would I go about displaying those header graphics above each section of cars?

Here's the code that I've got so far to display the sections:

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM inventory WHERE Sold = '0' ORDER BY Year DESC, Miles ASC" , $db);

while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC))
{
	print "	<table border='0' width='100%'>\n";
	print "		<tr>\n";
	print "			<td height='2' rowspan='5'>\n";
	print "			</td>\n";
	print "			<td colspan='3' height='2'>\n";
	print "			</td>\n";
	print "		</tr>\n";
	print "		<tr>\n";
	print "			<td width='38%' height='17'>\n";
	print 				$myrow['Year'];
	print "			</td>\n";
	print "			<td width='22%' height='17'>\n";
	print 				$myrow['Miles']." Miles"; 
	print "			</td>\n";
	print "			<td width='22%' height='10' rowspan='3'>\n";
	print "			</td>\n";
	print "		</tr>\n";
	print "		<tr>\n";
	print "			<td width='38%' height='19'>\n";
	print 				$myrow['Model'];
	print "			</td>\n";
	print "			<td width='22%' height='19'>\n";
	print 				$myrow['Price'];
	print "			</td>\n";
	print "		</tr>\n";
	print "		<tr>\n";
	print "			<td width='38%' height='17'>\n";
	print				$myrow['Exterior_Color']." / ".$myrow['Interior_Color'];
	print "			</td>\n";
	print "			<td width='22%' height='17'>\n";
	print 				$myrow['Stock_Number'];
	print "			</td>\n";
	print "		</tr>\n";
	print "		<tr>\n";
	print "			<td colspan='3' height='2'>\n";
	print "			</td>\n";
	print "		</tr>\n";
} 	

print "</table>\n";

Thanks.

notionlogic

Can you change the query so you group by "Model" and then inside your while loop do something like this:

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM inventory WHERE Sold = '0' group by Model ORDER BY Year DESC, Miles ASC" , $db);

$currmodel = "";
while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC))
{
  if ($myrow['Model'] != $currmodel)
  {
     // print the header etc.
     $currmodel = $myrow['Model'];
  }

  // then continue as before

or, as usual, have I misunderstood the question ? 🙂

eoghain

I'd suggest that you look into separating your HTML and PHP first. If you build some template html files to hold your information you'll save yourself a lot of typing.

So what you would do is generate an html file that holds the HTML for each of your rows. You would use some kind of identifiable NON-HTML text to mark the places you want to change (I like #CHANGE_THIS# style items). Then for each of your rows you'd change the identifier into to proper value.

Below I assume that there are 2 HTML files header.html, and row.html. I'm also assuming that you have a field called category that groups your cars, since from looking at your page I can't use any of the fields that you currently display.

   $header_array = file("header.html");
   $row_array = file("row.html");

   $header = implode("", $header_array);
   $row = implode("", $row_array);

   $result = mysql_query("SELECT *
                            FROM inventory
                           WHERE Sold = '0'
                           ORDER BY Category, Year DESC, Miles ASC" , $db);

   $category = "";

   while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
      if ($category != $myrow['Category']) {
         $category = $myrow['Category']
         print preg_replace('#CATEGORY#', $category, $header);
      }

  $trow = preg_replace("#YEAR#", $myrow['Year'] , $row);
  $trow = preg_replace("#MILES#", $myrow['Miles'] , $trow);
  $trow = preg_replace("#MODEL#", $myrow['Model'] , $trow);
  $trow = preg_replace("#PRICE#", $myrow['Price'] , $trow);
  $trow = preg_replace("#EXT_COLOR#", $myrow['Exterior_Color'] , $trow);
  $trow = preg_replace("#STOCK_NUM#", $myrow['Stock_Number'] , $trow);

  print $trow;
   }

That is the basics of doing what you want and cleaning up your code a bit. For grouping you need something in your table that will do the job, I used the fictional category. Then you can set a variable to null and check if it matches the current category for the row you are trying to display, if it doesn't reset category and print our your header.

synergy

Originally posted by eoghain
I'd suggest that you look into separating your HTML and PHP first. If you build some template html files to hold your information you'll save yourself a lot of typing.

So what you would do is generate an html file that holds the HTML for each of your rows. You would use some kind of identifiable NON-HTML text to mark the places you want to change (I like #CHANGE_THIS# style items). Then for each of your rows you'd change the identifier into to proper value.

Below I assume that there are 2 HTML files header.html, and row.html. I'm also assuming that you have a field called category that groups your cars, since from looking at your page I can't use any of the fields that you currently display.
   $header_array = file("header.html");
   $row_array = file("row.html");

   $header = implode("", $header_array);
   $row = implode("", $row_array);

   $result = mysql_query("SELECT *
                            FROM inventory
                           WHERE Sold = '0'
                           ORDER BY Category, Year DESC, Miles ASC" , $db);

   $category = "";

   while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
      if ($category != $myrow['Category']) {
         $category = $myrow['Category']
         print preg_replace('#CATEGORY#', $category, $header);
      }

  $trow = preg_replace("#YEAR#", $myrow['Year'] , $row);
  $trow = preg_replace("#MILES#", $myrow['Miles'] , $trow);
  $trow = preg_replace("#MODEL#", $myrow['Model'] , $trow);
  $trow = preg_replace("#PRICE#", $myrow['Price'] , $trow);
  $trow = preg_replace("#EXT_COLOR#", $myrow['Exterior_Color'] , $trow);
  $trow = preg_replace("#STOCK_NUM#", $myrow['Stock_Number'] , $trow);

  print $trow;
   }
That is the basics of doing what you want and cleaning up your code a bit. For grouping you need something in your table that will do the job, I used the fictional category. Then you can set a variable to null and check if it matches the current category for the row you are trying to display, if it doesn't reset category and print our your header. [/B]

This looks like what i am looking for. I've got a field in teh datbase called "Type" the designates the group that the car is put into. Thanks for the help.