Iterating values fetched from mysqli - php

Question

So I am creating a dynamic menu. Where I have stored the main categories of the menu in a separate table and subcategories in another table.
They are stored in this way
Categories Table
id cat_name
1 HOME,
2 PRODUCTS,
3 SOLUTIONS,
4 NEWS & GALLERY,
5 DOWNLOADS,
6 CONTACT
Right Now I am running a query
$sql="SELECT * FROM categories";
$query = mysqli_query($con, $sql);
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($query)) {
$row['cat_name'];
$cat=explode(",",$row['cat_name']);
}
Then wherever needed I am printing the values like this
<?php echo $cat[0]; .. echo $cat[1]; //and so on ?>
It looks like this right now. And it is supposed to look likethis
But the problem with this solution is that I have to define the index of the array to print it.
I am developing the admin panel for this one and I want that if the admin adds a new menu item then it should automatically fetch it and display it.
But with this solution it is not possible.
I am thinking of iterating the values with a for loop but cannot get it right.

Answer 1

Use foreach ($query as $rows)
or
Use for ($i=0; $i < count($query); $i++)

Answer 2

Probably You can try this also
$sql="SELECT * FROM categories";
$query = mysqli_query($con, $sql);
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($query))
{
$row['cat_name'];
$cat=explode(",",$row['cat_name']);
foreach($cat as $catss)
{
$cat = trim($catss);
$categories .= "<category>" . $cat . "</category>\n";
}
}

Answer 3

You can try this way may be you wish like this for dynamic menu:
$sql="SELECT * FROM categories";
$query = mysqli_query($con, $sql);
$menu = '';
$menu .= '<ul>';
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($query))
{
$menu .= '<li>' . $row['cat_name'] . '</li>';
}
$menu .= '</ul>';
echo $menu;
When you are fetching data from table then you can directly print that value using field name. if you want to further use that so, you have to add in one array like:
$cat[] = $row['cat_name'];
then you can use this value in that manner using for or while:
foreach ($cat as $value) {
echo $value;
}

Answer 4

echo '<ul>';
foreach ($cat as $val) {
echo "<li>{$val}</li>";
}
echo '</ul>';
Instead of the index. Also this should be faster and readable than for loop.

Answer 5

You can save it in array then later access the values.
$sql="SELECT * FROM categories";
$query = mysqli_query($con, $sql);
$cat = array();
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($query)) {
$cat[]=$row['cat_name']
}
Now:
foreach ($cat as $category) {
$cate_gory = explode("," , $category);
foreach ($cate_gory as $categories) {
echo $categories . "<br>";
}
}

Answer 6

Foreach Loop
foreach($cats as $cat)
{
echo $cat;
}
Basic For Loop
for ($i=0; $i<count($cats); $i++)
{
echo $cats[$i];
}
Simple Use Case
<?php
$cats = 'Stack overflow PHP questions';
$cats = explode(' ',$cats);
$html = '<ul>';
foreach($cats as $cat)
{
$html .= '<li>' . $cat . '</li>';
}
$html .= '</ul>';
echo $html;
?>
Your Code
In this case the while loop you are using will iterate over all the values returned from the sql statement, so there is no need to add more complexity. I would remove the commas from the field names and echo out the html this way.
$sql="SELECT * FROM categories";
$query = mysqli_query($con, $sql);
$html = '<ul>';
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($query)) {
$html .= '<li>' . $row['cat_name'] . '</li>';
}
$html .= '</ul>';
echo $html;
?>