Create a list from a two dimesional array in a method

nawrik

Hi all,

I've been messing with this problem for hours, it' now time to turn to PHPBuilder for help...

The Problem:

I'm trying to create variables for a whole table in a MySQL database.

The table holds the locations, id's, names etc... of a websites navigation menu. Eg;

here is my code so far:

	public function getMenu()
	{
	$query  = "SELECT * FROM menu ORDER BY linkposition ASC";
	$result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
	if(mysql_num_rows($result) > 0)
	{
		while($array[$row] = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC))
		{		
    		foreach($array[$row] as $key => $value)
   			{
        		echo $value; // A test to check all values are loading
			}
		}

}

I'm wanting to 'return' this array so that I can print outside of the class.

I'm not quite sure how to access each value? either individually or as a loop so that I can print the navigation menu like this:

<li><a href="about.php" target="_self">About</a></li>

nevvermind

Maybe this will give you some idea of how to do it:

<?php

$menu = array(
    'Home' => 'index.php',
    'About' => 'about.php',
    'Contact' => 'contact.php'
);

foreach ($menu as $name => $link) {
    echo '<li><a href="' . $link . '" target="_self">' . $name . '</a></li>'.PHP_EOL;
}

?>

Use mysql_fetch_assoc instead (it's the same thing as "mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)"). Like this:

while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    echo '<li><a href="' . $row['linklocation'] . '" target="_self">' . $row['linkname'] . '</a></li>'.PHP_EOL;
}

If you're inserting the menu into the db for good, I think it's no use to check if there are any "num_rows". So I think you can skip the "if(mysql_num_rows($result) > 0)" statement (and its curly brackets).

Also, I don't think it's a good idea to die with a mysql_error string. You don't want your visitors to accidentally read one of these on your site, do you? I don't know the best practice here, but I'd be using mysql_errno:

$result = mysql_query($query) or die("DB error: #" . mysql_errno());

// or just output an error string:
$result = mysql_query($query) or die("Could not query database");

nawrik

nevvermind,

thank you for your swift reply.

The mysql_fetch_assoc is much, much cleaner and works a treat.

However, new to OOP, I believe that it isn't a good idea to print any HTML or 'view' code within a class' method.

I'm trying to do exactly what is inside the while loop below, only outside of this method?

	// Method: getMenu()	
	public $menu;
	public function getMenu()
	{
	$query  = "SELECT * FROM menu ORDER BY linkposition ASC";
	$result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
	if(mysql_num_rows($result) > 0)
	{
		while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    		echo '<li><a href="' . $row['linklocation'] . '" target="' .$row['linktarget']. '">' . $row['linkname'] . '</a></li>';
		}
	}
	else
	{
		echo "<div id=\"linkcontainer\">There is currently no main menu.</div>\n";
	}

// Clear data
mysql_free_result($result);

return $menu;	
} // getMenu()

nevvermind

Ah, well, you got me there. I'm new to OOP, too. Try this.

	// Method: getMenu()

// line below changed
public $menu = '';

public function getMenu()
{
$query  = "SELECT * FROM menu ORDER BY linkposition ASC";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
if(mysql_num_rows($result) > 0)
{
	while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
            // changed this line. we'll append to $menu
		$menu .= '<li><a href="' . $row['linklocation'] . '" target="' .$row['linktarget']. '">' . $row['linkname'] . '</a></li>' . PHP_EOL;
	}
}
else
{
             //changed this line
	$menu = "<div id=\"linkcontainer\">There is currently no main menu.</div>\n";
}

// Clear data
mysql_free_result($result);

return $menu;	
} // getMenu()

nawrik

nevvermind,

thanks for your efforts.

I somehow envisage the ability to access each variable created from the array as and when...

...the mysql_fetch_array you suggested works fine with a normal array, however the problem comes when trying to access a multidimensional array.

I'm thinking the foreach() loop will be vital...just can't figure out exactly what to do with it!

something like:

foreach( $row['id'] as $key=>$value ) {
 // Am I on the right tracks with foreach???
}

nevvermind

I don't know what are you using that "id" for.

The while statement iterates, too.
So, after "while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))", you can echo $row['id'], $row['linklocation'] or $row['linktarget']. You don't have a multidimension-array.

Do check out those control statements and mysql_fetch_assoc.

For this to work:

foreach( $row['id'] as $key=>$value )

... it should have been this array:

$row = array (
   'id' => array ('linklocation' => 'index.php', 'linktarget' => 'Home')
);

And it's not. Your "$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)" does this on ONE iteration:

$row = array(
   'id' => '1',
   'linklocation' => 'index.php',
   'linktarget' => 'Home'
);