How to decode JSON using PHP in three listing columns? - php

Question

I'm new using JSON and PHP.
I have a big list of products in JSON that is being decoded through PHP and I need this list to be splited in 3 columns. How can I do this?
Here is the code I'm using now:
<div class="col-md-4">
<div class="section-title">
<ul class="dados">
<?php
$url = 'http://myurl/consult';
$data = file_get_contents($url);
$characters = json_decode($data);
foreach ($characters as $character) {
?>
<li class="nomes-ies"><?php echo $character->nome . '</li>'; } ?>
</ul>
</div>
</div>

Answer 1

You could use array_chunk() to split your array in three elements. Then, use a foreach on this array, around the <div class="col-md-4">:
<?php
$url = 'http://myurl/consult';
$data = file_get_contents($url);
$characters = json_decode($data);
$cols = array_chunk($characters, ceil(count($characters) / 3));
foreach ($cols as $data) {
?>
<div class="col-md-4">
<div class="section-title">
<ul class="dados">
<?php foreach ($data as $character) { ?>
<li class="nomes-ies"><?php echo $character->nome ?></li>
<?php } ?>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<?php } // end foreach $cols ?>
Note that the number of elements used in array_chunk() must be computed with ceil() to avoid to get 4 columns. The last column could have less elements than the other.