formatting help

slrobinson1983

hello all. i have this code...

<?php 
$query= "SELECT * FROM table";
$result=mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error()); 

$num_rows = mysql_num_rows($result); 
if($num_rows>=1) 
{ 
    echo "<table border=0>"; 
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) 
    { 
    echo "<td>" . $row['data'] . "," . "</td>"; 
    } 
    echo "</table>"; 
} 
?>

lets say it is displaying from 5 records, it is displaying this way:

data1, data2, data3, data4, data5,

and i'd like it to be displayed without the comma following the last record and WITH an "&" preceding the last record in this way:

data1, data2, data3, data4, & data5

any ideas?

bradgrafelman

Maintain a counter in the while() loop that counts how many records have been outputted so far. Then, use an if() condition to check if the current count is one behind the total number of rows that your query returned (i.e. you're on the last row right now). If so, output the '&' separator. If not, output a comma instead.

slrobinson1983

thanks for the reply. ive been trying to figure out how to accomplish that all day but its obvious to me that i have no idea what im doing! im sure i can figure out the if()condition part but can you give me an example of the counter in the while loop part and also do you think this is the best way to do what im trying to accomplish or is there a better way? thanks again for the help.

bradgrafelman

slrobinson1983 wrote:
can you give me an example of the counter in the while loop part

It's nothing complicated... just define a counter before the while() loop that is initialized to 0. Then, at the end of the while() loop, increment the counter by one.

$i = 0;

while(true) {
  // something here...

  $i++;
}

slrobinson1983 wrote:
do you think this is the best way to do what im trying to accomplish or is there a better way?

"Best" / "better" in what way? Seems pretty subjective to me... e.g. which color is better, blue or green?

dagon

something like:

if ($i  == $num_rows-1) {
    echo "";
  }else{
    echo "";
}
  $i++;

slrobinson1983

thanks for the responses

@
i tried doing it like you have it but i kept doing something wrong. i was finally pointed in this direction...

<?php 
$query= "SELECT * FROM table"; 
$result=mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error()); 
$num_rows = mysql_num_rows($result); 
if($num_rows > 0) 
{
echo "<table>"; 
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) 
{ 
$num_rows--;
echo "<td>" . $row['data'] . ($num_rows > 0 ? "," : "") . "</td>"; 
} 
echo "</table>"; 
} 
?>

...it dosen't incorporate the ampersand like i wanted but its cool this way too.