Making my While loop look almost sexual

[saltious]

Hi All.

i need help making a hile loop look better than it does.

heres my code

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {

echo "<br>";
echo "Call ID: " . $row['callid'] ."  " . "  " . "Logged By: " . $row['forename'] . $row['surname'] . "     ";
echo "<br>";
echo $row['problem'];
echo "<br>";
echo "<br>";


$passvar = $row['callid'];
echo ("<a href=\"adminedit.php?passvar=$passvar\">Update Call</a>");
echo "\n";
echo "<br>";
echo "<br>";

}

this all works fine but it looks absolutly terrible.

to change the formatting of my php and html by just ending the php with ?> then doing some html like </span><span class="style2"> then opening the php again...<?php echo etc etc.

however, this doesnt work for this while loop. im guessing because when i stop the php with ?> it kills the loop.

does anyone know how i may be able to change the formatting of different outputs of the loop?

take the first bit for example.....

echo "Call ID: " . $row['callid'] ." " . " " . "Logged By: " . $row['forename'] . $row['surname'] . " ";

how would i have echo "call ID" have different formatting from . $row['callid'] . etc

many many thanks for this.

[Weedpacket]

saltious wrote:

im guessing because when i stop the php with ?> it kills the loop.

It doesn't. But if you're going to use a bunch of echo statements for everything else, why not just use echo statement for the span tags as well?

how would i have echo "call ID" have different formatting from . $row['callid'] . etc

By putting them in <span> tags and assigning styles to those spans.

[devinemke]

is this "sexy" enuff?

echo '<table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">';

while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
	echo '
	<tr><td align="right">Call ID:</td><td>' . $row['callid'] . '</td></tr>
	<tr><td align="right">Logged By:</td><td>' . $row['forename'] . ' ' . $row['surname'] . '</td></tr>
	<tr><td align="right">Problem:</td><td>' . $row['problem'] . '</td></tr>
	<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td><a href="adminedit.php?passvar=' . $row['callid'] . '">Update Call</a></td></tr>
	<tr><td colspan="2">&nbsp;<br><br></td></tr>
	';
}

echo '</table>';

[ednark]

Here is yet another way of doing things. In this case, separating the call for the data from the display of the data, and staying in html as much as possible, only breaking into php when you have too. It uses the "while: endwhile;" syntax and the "<?= ?>" syntax which is the same as "<?php echo ?>" or "<?php print ?>". Both of these alternate syntax are good for doing things from the "html" perspective.

<?php
$results = array(
     array('callid'=>00,'forename'=>'Bill','surname'=>'Miller','problem'=>'too tall')
    ,array('callid'=>11,'forename'=>'Sarah','surname'=>'Conner','problem'=>'too alive')
    ,array('callid'=>22,'forename'=>'Sam','surname'=>'Small','problem'=>'too small')
);
?>

... later on ...

<table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
<?php while ( list($rowid,$row) = each($results) ): ?>
    <tr><td align="right">  Call ID:</td><td><?= $row['callid']; ?></td></tr>
    <tr><td align="right">Logged By:</td><td><?= $row['forename'] .' '. $row['surname']; ?></td></tr>
    <tr><td align="right">  Problem:</td><td><?= $row['problem']; ?></td></tr>
    <tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td><a href="adminedit.php?passvar=<?= $row['callid']; ?>">Update Call</a></td></tr>
    <tr><td colspan="2">&nbsp;<br><br></td></tr>
<?php endwhile; ?>
</table>

[NogDog]

Another way to separate the HTML from the PHP:

<?php

$html = <<<END
<br><span class='foo'>Call ID:</span> %s <span class='foo'>Logged By:</span> %s %s<br>
%s<br><br>
<a href="adminedit.php?passvar=%s">Update Call</a><br><br>
END;

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
   printf(
      $html, 
      $row['callid'], 
      $row['forename'], 
      $row['surname'],
      $row['problem'],
      $row['callid']
   );
}

(PS: Using lots of <br> tags like that is usually a good sign that it's time to modify your HTML to use more semantically meaningful mark-up and then use CSS to control the space between elements.)

[nikko50]

Stop it guys. I'm getting excited🙂
Tracy

[saltious]

you guys are absolutely great.

i have now got a very sexy while loop indeed. my users are going to be put off their work i think.

if any of you are ever in the north of england i shall buy you a pint. just ask for Ian.

thanks guys!

[djjjozsi]

<?
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {

$string="
Call ID: {$row['callid']}  Logged By: {$row['forename']}   {$row['surname']}

{$row['problem']}

";
print nl2br($string);

or:

And you could do that with HEREDOC syntax (with this, you don't need to excape the unescaped characters.. ):

$string=<<<eof
<a href="adminedit.php?passvar={$row['callid']}">Update Call</a>
<br>
<br>
eof;

print nl2br($string);



}


?>