arranging query results on page

[yahyac]

What is the best way to arrange query results on a website?

Basically, let's say I do a query for products of a certain category, and the result is 12 products.

Not even going into the idea of pagination (another whole ballgame i hope to get to), I just want to know how to code with php to tell it to put three products per row, one in each column. So once the products are all placed in tables on the screen, I will see four rows of three products each.

Do people just use counter variables and mod operations to basically determine when to start a new row? Is there some neat way in php of doing this?

And if so, would you please mind showing the code, assuming its a simply one or two liner.

Thanks much.
Jonathan

[bradgrafelman]

yahyac wrote:

Do people just use counter variables and mod operations to basically determine when to start a new row?

That would be my suggestion.

If you need help doing that, I'd say search the boards. I'm pretty sure rows and columns have been covered many times here. If not, give it a shot on your own and post the code you tried.

[yahyac]

Thanks for the heads up. There are plenty posts on the subject, basically all doing the same thing, just in one's own unique way. Here's one such post:

Roger Ramjet wrote:

You have not even tried - that's why you've got no answers.

// set up column count
$cols = 3;

// set up counter
$i = 0;

// start table
echo '<table>';

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

// if counter is zero start nerw table row
if ($i == 0 ) {
   echo '<tr>';
}

// display entry in table cell
echo '<td>' . $row['data'] . '</td>';

// count it
$i++;

// if count equals col count then end table row and reset counter
if ($i == $cols) {
   echo '</tr>';
   $i = 0;
}

}

// edn table
echo '</table>';

And if there are typos or minor logic errors then it is up to you to fix them - I won't.

There was another post where someone mentioned "padding" the columns, and I did not know what he meant by his usage of the term padding.

But if you look at the example code above, and let's say, you had 5 results, or really, and number of results that were NOT a multiple of 3 (column count). Then in this case, wouldn't it be the case that the columns in the last row will not finish? And if so, that is a bad thing right? I know this is not really a php question, just a basic html question. I imagine if someone has a table with 10 rows of 3 cols each and the final row only has data in col 1, that it would be bad coding to just end the row right then.

So is Weedpacket's solution, show here, http://phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?t=10294138, the best way to go?

[bradgrafelman]

I dont even have to visit the URL (though I did to check it out)... if Weedpacket suggested/posted it, it has my vote 😉

[yahyac]

good deal.

[bradgrafelman]

Let us know if it works out for you. If it does, don't forget to mark this thread resolved!

[yahyac]

Referencing that link from Weedpacket, again show here, http://phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?t=10294138, can someone please explain what is going on with this snippet of code:

// Let's begin our loop.
for($i=0; $i<$count; $i++)
{	// Whenever $i is a multiple of $display_columns (including 0),
	// it's a sign that we're hitting the start of a new row.
	if($i%$display_columns == 0)
		echo '<tr>';
	//Now for an item.
	echo '<td>';
	echo mysql_result($result,'value',$i);
	echo '</td>';
	//Whenever $i is one less than a multiple of $display_columns,
	// it's a sign that we're hitting the end of the current row.
	if($i%$display_columns == $display_columns-1)
		echo '</tr>';
}

Specifically, I do not get the part where the data is printed.

echo mysql_result($result,'value',$i);

What is 'value' here?

Also, the $result will be holding several tuples, each of which has several attributes (columns). I don't get what is being printed here.

This was probably just an example and he was showing that you can print something from the results. But i don't get it. No doubt, it is because of my limited understanding of php, and in specific, of the call mysql_result.

How do I basically take one row of the results, and then print the various attributes in that row?

Thanks.

[bradgrafelman]

Look in the PHP manual for what [man]mysql_result/man does.

Instead of using that, you could declare some temporary variable, say $row, and use a function like [man]mysql_fetch_assoc/man to fetch a row from the result set and return it as an associative array.