[RESOLVED] Is there a neater way of doing this?

[cneeds]

Hi

What is the neater way of doing this?

$space = '                        ';

😃

Chris

[cretaceous]

use floated divs with defined widths?

[Krik]

Similarly to cretaceous suggestion you could also use padding, or margins. I guess there also maybe times that left, top, right, and bottom positioning could be used.

I think most would agree that using a string of   or even transparent 1 pixel images is unnecessary with all the options in CSS.

[nevvermind]

For the fun of it:

$space = "            ";
preg_replace('#\s#', ' ', $space);

😃

[Krik]

For the fun of it

$space = "            ";
preg_replace('#\s#', ' ', $space); 

I like it.

I follow another php forum where there is some people that get on and post questions along the lines of how many ways can you get php to do x, y and z. They always take away the obvious options and set a few general guidelines. They are always a brain teaser, and the replies can be quite the riot. That reminds me of some of those posts.

[cneeds]

Thank you everyone.

nevvermind, your solution didn't work. I'm using the no-break spaces to indent my menu items in this code:

  // indent with some spaces depending on menu_level
  // 3 = indent, 6 = number of characters in  
  $nof_spaces = ($row['menu_level'] * 3 * 6);
  if (($nof_spaces) > 0) {
     $msg .= substr($space, 0, $nof_spaces);
  }

Chris

[dagon]

css !

[cneeds]

Thanks dagon. care to elucidate?

🙂

[Krik]

Thanks dagon. care to elucidate?

Hes referring to mine and cretaceous suggestions. Float, width, margin, padding, top, left, bottom, right; are all CSS properties. And they can be used on most HTML elements.

HTML and CSS are inseparable. In fact HTML5 is not going to support attributes like width, height, valign, borders, ect, as well the font tag is no longer supported, so you are going to have to learn CSS.

[cneeds]

Thank you Krik

Can you recommend a good css tutorial to get me up to speed quickly?

Can I vary the margin set in css based on a value in my database as I read through my menu items?

Chris

[cneeds]

Hey guys

This works:

$space = str_pad("", 144, " ");

Chris

[cretaceous]

if it's for a navigation system you should do it with css lists

<ul class='abc'>
<li>item1</li>
<li>item1</li>
</ul>

then you set margin and padding in the css for class .abc

you need to figure out the secondary indent list css for yourself !

or find a prebuilt javascript navigation menu system and build from that

[bradgrafelman]

cneeds;10963520 wrote:

Hey guys

This works:

$space = str_pad("", 144, " ");

Chris

So would:

$space = str_repeat(" ", 144);

but the reason everyone is mentioning HTML/CSS solutions is because using 144 non-breaking spaces sounds like a terrible way of altering the layout of a webpage.

[cneeds]

hi cretaceous

if it's for a navigation system you should do it with css lists

OK. How many indentation levels can this handle?

Chris

[bradgrafelman]

cneeds;10963557 wrote:

How many indentation levels can this handle?

As many as you can type, really. Just think of each "level" as an unordered list, so a level within a level would simply be an unordered list embedded within an item of another unordered list.

[cneeds]

bradgrafelman;10963558 wrote:

As many as you can type, really. Just think of each "level" as an unordered list, so a level within a level would simply be an unordered list embedded within an item of another unordered list.

OK, there's not much data in my db at the moment but when its more populated I'll invite you to take a look. If you tell me that I can do what I need with css then I'll sit and figure it out.

Chris

[cneeds]

bradgrafelman;10963556 wrote:

but the reason everyone is mentioning HTML/CSS solutions is because using 144 non-breaking spaces sounds like a terrible way of altering the layout of a webpage.

Sure, the 144 was because the   took up six characters. therefore only 24 needed in your solution.

24 is way too many, even at 3 per indent, but I felt better safe than sorry, when, somewhere down the line someone has more than 7 levels of nested programmes!

Chris

[cretaceous]

maybe simplest approach is:

echo '<div style="padding-left:'.$nof_spaces.'px">'.$name-of-entry.'</div>';

you can scale $nof_spaces if indent is not enough
just make sure $nof_spaces is an integer with floor or ceil

[cneeds]

cretaceous;10963596 wrote:

maybe simplest approach is:

echo '<div style="padding-left:'.$nof_spaces.'px">'.$name-of-entry.'</div>';

you can scale $nof_spaces if indent is not enough
just make sure $nof_spaces is an integer with floor or ceil

Thank you, I will try this and revert.

Chris

[cneeds]

hi cretaceous, that works and the nice thing is it also indents my numbering system <ol> to use for reference on support calls. "on the bureau de change system menu 23 is doing thus and thus"

Great help, thank you very much

Chris