Alternating bg colours

[BorededYunYun]

Hi, I'm having trouble with alternating bg colours for my shoutbox... I've been struggling for quite a while and I am new to PHP. Please help? Here's the code I'm using:

<?
//the host, name, and password for your mysql
mysql_connect("localhost","***","***");

//select the database
mysql_select_db("****");

if($submit)
{
   //use the PHP date function for the time
   $time=date("h:ia d/j/y");

   // inserting it into the shoutbox table which we made in the mysql 

statements before
   $result=MYSQL_QUERY("INSERT INTO shoutbox (id,name,message,time)".
      "VALUES ('NULL','$name', '$message','$time')");
}
?>

<?
//returning the last 5 messages
$result = mysql_query("select * from shoutbox order by id desc limit 

5");

//the while loop
while($r=mysql_fetch_array($result))
{		
   //getting each variable from the table
   $time=$r["time"]; 
   $id=$r["id"];
   $message=$r["message"];
   $name=$r["name"];
?>

 <? echo $time ?><br>
   <b><? echo $name ?>:</b> <? echo $message ?><br>

<? } ?>

<form action="<? echo $php_self ?>" method="post">
<INPUT TYPE='TEXT' value='name' NAME='name' SIZE=30 

maxlength='25'><br>
<INPUT TYPE='TEXT' value='message' NAME='message' SIZE=30 

maxlength='125'>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit">
</form>

[thorpe]

You should try to search the board for an example... this question is asked every second day.

[BorededYunYun]

Yeah... I've tried and even googled everywhere but I always seem to get an error... ^;; That's how much of a n00b I am.

[thorpe]

Post the code you've tried, and let us know what the error your getting is.

[BorededYunYun]

Well the only one that kinda worked was

//the while loop
while($r=mysql_fetch_array($result))
{		
   //getting each variable from the table
   $time=$r["time"]; 
   $id=$r["id"];
   $message=$r["message"];
   $name=$r["name"];
?>


<? echo ($color = !$color) ? '#aabbcc': '#ddeeff'; ?>
<? echo $time ?><br>
   <b><? echo $name ?>:</b> <? echo $message ?><br><hr 

color="#000000" size="1" style="dotted"><br>

<? } ?>

But it alternate the code rather than placing the actual colours.

Then when I tried codes like this, it just says there's an error on the lines I placed them in:

$bgcolor="black";

while(something)
{
echo $bgcolor;

if ($bgcolor=="black")
{
$bgcolor="white";
}
else
{
$bgcolor="black";
};

...It's most likely because I don't really know where to place them. :queasy: I usually put it just above the <? echo ?> codes

[Weedpacket]

Did you try searching these forums?
Let's see: "alternating row colours colors" (thanks, Noah Webster, just what we needed.)

Well, I got two hits, and look, it's even cited in the FAQs.

[Kudose]

Well...

while(something)

is not valid -- and the semicolon at the end of your script is not valid.

The simplest way (as you almost got) is something like this:

$bgColor = "black";
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table");
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)){
  //display table row with current BG color
  ($bgColor == "black") ? $bgColor = "white" : $bgColor = "black";
}

edit
You are also missing the ending brace for your while
/edit

[thorpe]

Kudose wrote:

Well...

while(something)

is not valid

It could be if...

define('something',TRUE);

[Weedpacket]

Or "something" is short for "something that would take too long to write out considering how little enlightenment it would provide".

[thorpe]

Or "something" is short for "something that would take too long to write out considering how little enlightenment it would provide".

Yeah... Im aware.