Need help with putting links in static info according to query results

jomama

Here's one that I haven't been able to do, yet.

I have a page with a list of 50 states and some have links to another page if there are listing in that particular state. Currently, this page is static and I have to make sure there are links to states that have listing and that there aren't links to states that don't have listings.

So here is what I want to do. I want to translate the results of the following query to display a page that looks exactly like the current page( http://www.actorspost.com/directori...entagencies.php )and that displays all the states that inserts links dynamically into the states that have listings.:

select count(*) as Count, State,
DATE_FORMAT(StartDate, '%c/%e/%Y') as StartDate,
DATE_FORMAT(EndDate, '%c/%e/%Y') as EndDate
from Ad where State = State and Approved = '1' and CompanyType = 'ta' group by State

ie- if count>0 then create the link
else show the statename

And it gets even trickier. The states are listed in four columns so that the user doesn't have to scroll.

Can someone help please, I am stumped.

Hurkle

Okay, first of all, I'm not exactly sure what the meaning of 'where State = State' is in your sql statement, but I'll assume that you're able to get the query working right. I would suggest adding the following..

ORDER BY State

so that you get the results in alphabetical order by state.

then, something like this..

echo "<TABLE border = '1'>"

$col = 0

echo "<TR>"

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))

{

$col++

echo "<TD>";

if ($row['Count']>0 )

{
echo "<A href = 'somepage.php?state=" . $row['State'] . " ' >";

echo $row['State'] . "</A>"

}

else

{

echo $row['State'];

}

echo "</TD>"

if ($col==4)

{
$col=1;

echo "</TR><TR>"

}

echo "</TR></TABLE>";

The idea here is that you start by drawing a table, and you have a counter. You always draw the start and end table cell tags around each state, wether it has records or not. If it has records, draw a link, else just display the state name. Drawing each state increments the counter by 1. If the counter hits 4, your in the 4th column, and need to end, then start, a new table row. When you're all done looping through your results set, close out the final TR, and end the table.

Lastly, I tried checking out your example page, it wasn't a complete link. And, rather than using the state name to identify the state to the processing script, I would add an ID field to each state record, if you havent already, and pass that id number.

Hope this helps, let us know what you come up with.