display info together

aconway

I have a database setup where I can rank certain records, so when I query the database the records are displayed in order according to their rank. And if an record has a rank of 0 it isn't displayed. Simple enough... but I have come to a spot where I need to have some records be ranked the same.

This is fine because the rank is not the primary key. The problem that I am having is displaying the information.

What I have been doing in the past is displaying the Title and a Summary in a box and have them ordered by rank.

Now in some scenarios I give the same rank to more than one record and would like to display All titles that correspond to the rank to show up in one box along with one of the Summaries - most likely the one that relates to the first Title.

My first thought was to create a two-dimensional array and input all the data into it then list the info like this.

for ( $i=0; $i<$num_rows; $i++)
{
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$data = array( array( rank => $row['rank'], title => $row['title'], summary => $row['summary'] ));

if ($data[$i]['rank'] == $data[$i++]['rank'])
  {
  echo "<p>".$data[$i]['title']."<br>\n";
  echo $data[$i++]['title']."</p>\n";
  } else {
  echo "<p>".$data[$i]['title']."</p>\n";
  }					  							   

}

But it doesn't work, and it loads VERY SLOOOOWLY.

If anyone has an idea that would be awesome.

devinemke

while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
	$data[$row['rank']][] = array('title' => $row['title'], 'summary' => $row['summary']);
}
print_r($data);

aconway

it doesn't seem to be working, but I am probably doing something wrong.

right now I have

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table WHERE rank != '0' ORDER BY rank ASC");

So, I don't know if that is screwing thing up.

I read up on mysql_fetch_assoc()

It seems to me that if the code was working properly the way you have it, it would only show those that have the same rank. Or, will is show all the records?

I would like the resulting page to look something like this:

+-------------------------------+
|Superman /rank = 1/ |
|Supergirl /rank =1 / |
|Summary Blah, Blah, Blah |
+-------------------------------+
+-------------------------------+
|Batman /rank =2 / |
|Summary Blah, Blah, Blah |
+-------------------------------+
+-------------------------------+
|GreenArrow /rank = 3/ |
|GreenHornet /rank=3 / |
|Summary Blah, Blah, Blah |
+-------------------------------+

devinemke

my example creates a multi-dimenasional array that has the rank as the keys and subarrays with title and summary as the values. you then have all of the records grouped by common rank (which is what i thought you wanted). in your last post you said you want the output to look like...

+-------------------------------+
|Superman /rank = 1/ |
|Supergirl /rank =1 / |
|Summary Blah, Blah, Blah |
+-------------------------------+

what then is the Summary? is it for Superman or Supergirl? perhaps i'm still not undertsanding your data structure.

aconway

it would be one summary for both, Since I don't know how to extract the information correctly yet I would put the same summary in both records and I would imagine it would be pulled from one of them.

devinemke

let's back up a minute. what exactly is your data structure? you have one table with title, summary and rank? but you are saying that some summaries are repeated? it sounds like you should do two tables and relate them together. explain the data structure in greater detail.

aconway

the table is setup with rank, code, title, summary and description.

Each title has a specific description and code.

I plan on having the title be a link to the description.

the code is the primary key.

The summary can is identical for several titles.

I want to be able to order the results of the title and summary page by the rank. If rank is set to 0 it doesn't show. Otherwise it is ascending. If a title has the same rank, it shares the summary, but it also maintains it's order with all the other titles.

there are other several other data fields within the table, but I'm trying to make it as simple as possible... when I know this is a complex thing.

I think this breaks it down as much as possible.

aconway

I got some help and this works, but I need to intersperse the codes for both titles too the following only lists the title and one summary if titles have the same rank:

$html='<table border="1">'; 
$prerank=''; 
$summery=''; 
$startrow='<tr><td>'; 
while($row=mysql_fetch_assoc($query)) 
{    

// if rank changes output previous summery 
// start new group store summery 
if($row['rank']!=$prerank) 
{ 
// store new rank 
$prerank=$row['rank']; 
$html.=$summery; 
$summery='</td></tr><tr><td>'.$row['summery'].'</td></tr><tr><td>------'; 
$html.=$startrow; 
$startrow='</td></tr><tr><td>'; 
} 
//output title 
$html.=$row['title'].'<br>'; 
} 
echo $html.'</td></tr></table>';

So, getting this would be ideal:

[PRE]
+-------------------------------+
|Superman /rank = 1/ |
|Supergirl /rank =1 / |
|codeMan, codeGirl |
|Summary Blah, Blah, Blah |
|codeman link, codegirl link |
+-------------------------------+
+-------------------------------+
|Batman /rank =2 / |
|codebatman |
|Summary Blah, Blah, Blah |
|codebatman link |
+-------------------------------+
+-------------------------------+
|GreenArrow /rank = 3/ |
|GreenHornet /rank=3 / |
|codeArrow, codeHornet |
|Summary Blah, Blah, Blah |
|codeArrow link, codeHornet link|
+-------------------------------+
[/PRE]

paulnaj

Hi aconway,

In your 'desired' output ...

+-------------------------------+
|Superman /*rank = 1*/          |
|Supergirl /*rank =1 */         |
|code1, code2                   |
|Summary Blah, Blah, Blah       |
|code1 link, code2 link         |
+-------------------------------+
+-------------------------------+
|Batman /*rank =2 */            |
|code1                          |
|Summary Blah, Blah, Blah       |
|code1 link                     |
+-------------------------------+
+-------------------------------+
|GreenArrow /*rank = 3*/        |
|GreenHornet /*rank=3 */        |
|code1, code2                   |
|Summary Blah, Blah, Blah       |
|code1 link, code2 link         |
+-------------------------------+

1) In the first block, does code1 refer to Superman, code2 refer to Supergirl?
2) What about 'Summary' ... is that Superman's or Supergirl's?

Paul.

aconway

I got help. Here is what I was given:

$html='<table border="1">'; 
$prerank=''; 
$summery=''; 
$code=''; 
$link=''; 
$startrow='<tr><td>'; 
while($row=mysql_fetch_assoc($query)) 
{     

// if rank changes output previous summery 
// start new group store summery 

if($row['rank']!=$prerank) 
{ 
// store new rank 
$prerank=$row['rank']; 
$html.=substr($code,0,-2).$summery.$link; 
$summery='<br>'.$row['summery']; 
$html.=$startrow; 
$startrow='</td></tr><tr><td>'; 
$code=''; 
$link='<br>'; 
} 
//output title 
$code.=$row['code'].', '; 
$link.='<a href="'.$row['link'].'">text</a> '; 
$html.=$row['title'].'<br>'; 
} 
echo $html.substr($code,0,-2).$summery.$link.'</td></tr></table>';

It works SUPERRIFIC