category subcategory logic problem

bladx

I have been stuck trying to get the logic of a silly piece of code working since yesterday evening.

What I'm doing is generating some simple JavaScript for a "select" menu later. There are categories, and subcategories in a CMS thing I'm working on. I am making a JavaScript form that will show categories in one select box, and then when a user selects a different category, a second select box shows the subcategories that are in the category.

Here's what the code looks like so far:


$last_c_id = 0;
$first_flag = 0;

while($db->next_record()):

if (($db->Record["c_id"] != $last_c_id) && ($first_flag == 0)) {
	echo "<b>output {</b><br>";
	echo "do some REGULAR stuff...<br>";
	$first_flag = 1;
} else if (($db->Record["c_id"] != $last_c_id)) {
	echo "closing brace }<br>";
} else {
	echo "do some stuff...<br>";		
}



$first_flag = 0;
endwhile;

and the reason why the database connection code looks funky, I'm using a class for it. Basically my logic goes like this:

pseudocode

flag = 0

WHILE there is another record

if record id is not equal to the last record id checked
AND if flag is 0
output ... {
output option
flag = 1 // flag 1 means that we have done the open {
end if

else if record id is not equal to the last record id checked
AND if flag is not 0
output }
flag = 0 // flag 0 means that we are done with the block }
end if

else
output option

last record = record id

END WHILE

But I end up with this type of output:

output {
do some REGULAR stuff...
do some stuff...
output {
do some REGULAR stuff...
output {
do some REGULAR stuff...
output {
do some REGULAR stuff...
output {
do some REGULAR stuff...

It doesn't get to the closing } part. This must be a really easy thing to fix, or even do a bit differently. But i've been trying many different approaches, but keep getting stuck. I guess I basically need to make the code add an ending } when there are no more subcategories in a category.

This is a dumb question, but I am pressed for time, haha lame. Anyway, any help would be appreciated.

tsinka

Hi,

hope that I understood you right ... 🙂

I think you forgot to set last_c_id in the while loop.


$last_c_id = 0; 

while($db->next_record()) {
    if ($db->Record["c_id"] != $last_c_id) {
      if ($last_c_id != 0) {
        echo "closing brace }<br>";
      }

  echo "<b>output {</b><br>"; 
  echo "do some REGULAR stuff...<br>"; 

  $last_c_id = $db->Record["c_id"];
} else {
  echo "do some stuff...<br>";         
}
}

echo "closing brace }<br>";

Thomas

bladx

ah, thanks for the reply 🙂
i just forgot to copy that line though.. i had it in my code already. i still am not getting it to work, but here is closer to what i am getting at:

$last_c_id = 1;
$open_brace = 0;

while($db->next_record()):
if ($open_brace == 0) {
		echo "<b>output {</b><br>";
		$open_brace = 1;
		//echo "output option<br>";
	}

if ($last_c_id == $db->Record["c_id"]) {
	echo "output option<br>";
} else {
	echo "}<br>";
	$open_brace = 0;
}
$last_c_id = $db->Record["c_id"];

endwhile;

Now the output looks like this:

output {
output option
output option
}
output {
}
output {
}
output {
}

bladx

my question is a bit confusing.

anyway, i might try just putting the values i need from the database query i'm using (btw here is the query: select * from categories, subcategories where c_id = sc_parent;

and put the values into a temporary php array. and then just iterate through the array (or arrays) to order the values the way I need.

tsinka

Ok,

it might help if you tell me how the data looks like and what the output should look like 🙂

Thomas

bladx

well I just hacked together a solution for the problem for now. it's hard to show the code and data because it spans multiple files and db tables. I will work on making the code more efficient later I guess. Thank you for the help too