putting a variable value into an array

FrancoPaddy

Hello,

Somehow or other I seem to have bypassed something fundamental in PHP.

My problem:

I have a series of results from a database generated from a while loop. On each loop I have a function that generates a physical height for the row in mm. (it's for a pdf document).

What I cant think for the life of me is how to put all the heights generated on each iteration into an array or add the sum of the iterations together so that I can calculate physical page breaks accurately. Been looking at this for days on and off and should have asked sooner. So if someone can give me some pointers that would be great.

devinemke

FrancoPaddy wrote:
What I cant think for the life of me is how to put all the heights generated on each iteration into an array or add the sum of the iterations together so that I can calculate physical page breaks accurately.

if all you need to do is sum a group of values in your database then you do not need an array at all. just do:

SELECT SUM(height) FROM table

FrancoPaddy

Thanks for that devinemke. However, the results are produced by the while loop from a database, but the height value is produced from a function that calculates the height of those rows as it loops. It is not coming from the databae but is being generated on the fly on each loop and is contained each time in a variable $h for height.

devinemke

what is the data structure of the table(s) and how are the values being calculated?

FrancoPaddy

$query = "SELECT * FROM final WHERE Quote LIKE $quotation ORDER BY finalID";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die("Couldn't execute query");

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
	$PresID = $row['PresID'];
	$ProdQuan= $row['ProdQuan'];
	$ProdFinish = $row['ProdFinish'];
	$ProdPrice = $row['ProdPrice'];
	$linevalue = $ProdQuan*$ProdPrice;
	$linevalue = number_format($linevalue, 2);
	$linevalue = "£" . $linevalue;
   $ProdPrice = number_format($ProdPrice, 2);
	$ProdPrice = "£" . $ProdPrice;
	$description = $row['datadesc'];
	$dim = $row['ProdDim'];
	$image = $row['imageindex'];
	$model = $row['ProdModel'];
	$Dimchange = str_replace("<br />","\n",$dim);
	$desctxt = $description . "\n\nW x D x H (Seat Height) c.m.:\n" . $Dimchange . "\n\n" . $ProdFinish;

$y_axis = ($y_axis+6) + $h;
$pdf->SetY($y_axis);
$pdf->SetX(15);
$pdf->SetFont('Arial','',10);
$pdf->SetAligns(array(L,L,R,R,R));
$pdf->SetWidths(array(61,61,12,20,25));
$pdf->Row(array(strtoupper($model),$desctxt,$ProdQuan,$ProdPrice,$linevalue));
}
mysql_close();//Create file
$file =''.$quotation.'.pdf';
$pdf->Output($file);
echo "<HTML><SCRIPT>document.location.href='http://www.mysite.co.uk/tmp3/$file';</SCRIPT></HTML>";

This is part of the code that generates the pdf's which generate no problem. The height is calculated within the Row function and this function looks like this

function Row($data)
{
    //Calculate the height of the row
	 global $h;
    $nb=0;
    for($i=0;$i<count($data);$i++)
        $nb=max($nb,$this->NbLines($this->widths[$i],$data[$i]));
    $h=5*$nb;
    //Issue a page break first if needed
    $this->CheckPageBreak($h);
    //Draw the cells of the row
    for($i=0;$i<count($data);$i++)
    {
        $w=$this->widths[$i];
        $a=isset($this->aligns[$i]) ? $this->aligns[$i] : 'L';
        //Save the current position
        $x=$this->GetX();
        $y=$this->GetY();
        //Draw the border
        $this->Rect($x,$y,$w,$h);
        //Print the text
        $this->MultiCell($w,5,$data[$i],0,$a);
        //Put the position to the right of the cell
        $this->SetXY($x+$w,$y);

}
//Go to the next line
$this->Ln($h);

}

I am sure that there is some redundant code there, but it does work fine as well. However, the $h variable which defines the height of the row within the function, I have made global so that I can use it outside the function back in the code at the top. I can echo the last height, but what I need is the array of heights from the while loop so that I can start to work with the data and then calculate page breaks etc on the fly. It is ridiculous, buut it is a problem with learning php on an ad hoc basis that you can miss what now seems to be fundamental stuff like this. I am aware that the function produces rows as well, but all I need is the one row that it does produce per row from the while statement. I hope that there is not too much rubbish to work out what I am on about.