Problems with a table layout

mrw2020

Hi everyone, I'm having real problems trying to retrieve database records in a 3 column layout, I got there eventually with a huge amount of help from this forum.

Unfortunately the code will only display records that are divisable by by three; for example for a database table that has 45 records there is no problem, as all records can be displayed in a 3 column layout. However if the table contains 47 records it won't display the 2 odd records.

I'm a bit desperate to sort this out for a project I'm doing, any help would be greatly appreciated - here is the php code:

$total = count($records);
  $nocol = 3;
  $norows = $total / $nocol;

for ($i=1; $i <= $norows; $i++) {
    $cell = 0;
    echo "<tr>";
    for($col=1; $col <= $nocol; $col++) {
       echo "<td>";
       if 
	   ($col == 1) {
       $cell += $i;
       echo '<strong class="navtext">'.$records[$cell - ]['ret_name'].'</strong><br />';
       echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_add1'].'<br />';
       echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_add2'].'<br />';
       echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_town'].'<br />';
       echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_county'].'<br />';
       echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_pcode'].'<br />';
       echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_phone'].'<br />';
       echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_email'].'<br />';
       echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_web'].'<br />';
       } else {
        $cell += $norows;
       echo '<strong class="navtext">'.$records[$cell - 1]['ret_name'].'</strong><br />';
       echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_add1'].'<br />';
       echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_add2'].'<br />';
       echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_town'].'<br />';
       echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_county'].'<br />';
       echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_pcode'].'<br />';
       echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_phone'].'<br />';
       echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_email'].'<br />';
       echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_web'].'<br />';

   }
   echo"</td>";
}
  echo"</tr>";
}

cerd_web

I'm no expert far from it, but I'm thinking you need to throw a mod into the mix.

mrw2020

sorry - I know I'm a bit thick but could you explain what you mean by 'throw a mod in the mix'? Any ideas would be of great help.

cerd_web

I was referring to the mod operator.
http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/54363.html

Basically the remainder. Because my PHP skill is very low, I can't understand your code enough to see what is happening without actually seeing the page and database, but I do think the operator maybe of some use in the case.. maybe not.

cerd_web

Also just wondering why in the if statement you don't have $cell -1 but:
echo '<strong class="navtext">'.$records[$cell - ]['ret_name'].'</strong><br />';
However in the else you have $cell -1

bradgrafelman

The problem is probably here:

 $norows = $total / $nocol;

Since you're not doing integer division, $norows will be a float value such as 45.5. In other words, you need 46 rows to show all of the results, yet your for() loop will stop at 45 since 46 isn't less than or equal to 45.5.

To solve that, use [man]ceil/man on the result of the division to always round up.

mrw2020

Thank you cerd_web, your right I need to deal with the remainder but the term is 'ceil' in php, I tried this with the following code:

$norows = ceil($total / $nocol);

and it did display the remainder records however I got the following error message:

Notice: Undefined offset: 14

for each of the columns. If any one could tell me how to resolve this I would be truly grateful.

mrw2020

bradgrafelman;10969245 wrote:
The problem is probably here:
 $norows = $total / $nocol;
Since you're not doing integer division, $norows will be a float value such as 45.5. In other words, you need 46 rows to show all of the results, yet your for() loop will stop at 45 since 46 isn't less than or equal to 45.5.

To solve that, use [man]ceil/man on the result of the division to always round up.

Hi yes I did find out about 'ceil' through my searching for an answer, however when I used it it threw up the following message:

Notice: Undefined offset: 14

in the last empty column, it displayed the message for all the columns in the table.

Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks

bradgrafelman

You'll have to include an if() statement that checks to see if $records[$cell - 1] is set (e.g. via [man]isset/man) and, if not, output empty columns instead of attempting to access nonexistent data.

mrw2020

My php skills are not very good but I have been trying to create the 'if else' clause without much success it still brings up the same error message, I have tried the following:


<?php
  $total = count($records);
  $nocol = 3;
  $norows = ceil($total / $nocol);

for ($i=1; $i <= $norows; $i++) {
    $cell = 0;
    echo "<tr>";
    for($col=1; $col <= $nocol; $col++) {
       echo "<td>";
       if 
       ($col == 1) {
       $cell += $i;

    if (isset($records[$cell - 1])) {
    } else {
       $records[$cell - 1] = NULL;
}

   echo '<strong class="navtext">'.$records[$cell - 1]['ret_name'].'</strong><br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_add1'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_add2'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_town'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_county'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_pcode'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_phone'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_email'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_web'].'<br />';
   } else {
    $cell += $norows;
   echo '<strong class="navtext">'.$records[$cell - 1]['ret_name'].'</strong><br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_add1'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_add2'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_town'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_county'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_pcode'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_phone'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_email'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_web'].'<br />';
   }
   echo"</td>";
}
  echo"</tr>";
}

and this:


if (isset($records[$cell - 1])) {


   echo '<strong class="navtext">'.$records[$cell - 1]['ret_name'].'</strong><br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_add1'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_add2'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_town'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_county'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_pcode'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_phone'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_email'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_web'].'<br />';
   } else {
    $cell += $norows;
   echo '<strong class="navtext">'.$records[$cell - 1]['ret_name'].'</strong><br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_add1'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_add2'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_town'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_county'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_pcode'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_phone'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_email'].'<br />';
   echo $records[$cell - 1]['ret_web'].'<br />';

} else {
           $records[$cell - 1] = NULL;
	}
       }
       echo"</td>";
    }
      echo"</tr>";
}

I have also tried


if (isset($records[$cell - 1])) {
        } else {
            echo  '';
	}

None of which has worked which is probably due to my lack of understanding of what I'm doing. Would it be possible to point me in the right directions thank you for your time any advice would be appreciated.