Loop to create a phone directory

cazgh

Hi,

Could anybody help me with a telephone directory I am trying to create?

I have a database with various members, each belonging to a department. I need to sort the list by department, giving the title of the department in a line of the table, followed by the members of the department each as lines of the table. I'm using PHP amd MySql.

When there are no more members in a department, I need to then move onto the next department, and list the staff there, and so on until all departments and staff have been listed.

Here's a piece of code that lists all of the staff in the directory:

while($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result)){

$newID = $myrow['0'];
$newFirstName = $myrow['1'];
$newSurname = $myrow['2'];
$newState = $myrow['3'];
$newTelephone = $myrow['4'];
$newDirectLine = $myrow['5'];
$newMobile = $myrow['6'];
$newFax = $myrow['7'];
$newEmail = $myrow['8'];
$newDepartment = $myrow['9'];
$newJobTitle = $myrow['10'];
$newCarReg = $myrow['11'];
$newPicture = $myrow['12'];
$newLocation = $myrow['13'];
$newImportance = $myrow['14'];

$displayblock3 .= "
<tr><td valign='top'>
<a href='mailto:$newEmail' class='DarkFontSmall'>$newFirstName $newSurname</a></td>
<td valign='top'>$newJobTitle</td>
<td valign='top'>$newDirectLine</td>
<td valign='top'>$newTelephone</td>
<td valign='top'>$newFax</td>
<td valign='top'>$newMobile</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan='6'><img src='images/spacer-black.gif' width='100%' height='1'></td></tr>
";

}

And here is a piece of code that lists all of the departments available:

while($myrow2 = mysql_fetch_array($result2)){
$newDept = $myrow2['0'];

print"<table border='0' width='650' align='center' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' bgcolor='#FFFFFF' class='border-black'>\n";
print"<tr bgcolor='#90A7D6'>\n";
print"<td colspan='6'>$newDept</td>\n";
print"</tr>\n";

Can anybody tell me how I make a loop to do this or point me in the right direction?

All ideas appreciated...

Thanks

Caz

barand

When dept changes value, print the value. Always print other details

Simple example

$res = mysql_query ("SELECT dept, name, phone FROM directory
         ORDER BY dept, name");

$prev_dept = '';

while (list($dept, $name, $phone) = mysql_fetch_row($res)) {

   // new dept?
   if ($dept != $prev_dept) {
         echo "<br><b>$dept</b><br><br>";
         $prev_dept = $dept;
   }
    echo  "$name $phone <br>";
}

perrohunter

barand example looks great , i'd code with some little differeces

$query = mysql_query ("SELECT dept, name, phone FROM directory
         ORDER BY dept, name");

while($row=mysql_fetch_array($query))
{

$departament = $row['dept'];
$name = $row['name'];
$phone = $row['phone'];

echo " $department - $name   - $phone <br>";

}

this will read all the rows u have in ur DB , sort em by dept and then every dept by name

Then the "while" loop will start echoing every value on and on till all rows have been shown.

If u want this into a table just echo the <tr> and the <td> tags in any order u'd like it to be shown , ofcourse dont forget the main <table> tag at the very top of ur code 😛

hope this help ya , sounds pretty easy to me , excuse my english

ill be around if ya need help 🙂 🙂