Importing data from MySQL into array and into table with PHP? - php

Question

I have a database that contains donor information and then have PHP pages that pull that data and display it under the donor's specific category.
The code I am using is as follows:
// 10,000 DONORS
echo "<p><b>$10,000 cont.</b></p>";
$sql = "SELECT * FROM donor WHERE DonationAmount = 10000 AND Category = '1' or DonationAmount = 10000 AND Category IS NULL ORDER BY LastName ASC LIMIT 10000 OFFSET 6";
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);
$i = 0;
$total_rows = $result->num_rows;
echo "<table><tr>";
if (mysqli_num_rows($result) > 0) {
// output data of each row
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
// test if the DisplayName field is empty or not
echo "<td>";
if (empty($row['DisplayName'])) {
// it's empty!
if (empty($row['FirstName'])) {
echo $row['LastName'];
}
else {
echo $row["LastName"] . ", " . $row["FirstName"];
}
} else {
// Do stuff with the field
echo $row["DisplayName"] . "";
}
echo "</td>";
$i++;
if ($i % 2 == 0 && $i != $total_rows) {
echo "</tr><tr>";
}
}
} else {
} echo "</tr></table>";
My question is as follows: right now the names are inserted into the table in a manner that makes the read left->right->left->right etc. I need them to show up like a normal list works and reads top to bottom, and rolls to the next column when it is told to (counter?). How can I do this?
Here is a preview off the page
EDIT: tried this code:
$sql = "SELECT * FROM donor WHERE DonationAmount = 1000 AND Category = '1' or DonationAmount = 1000 AND Category IS NULL ORDER BY LastName ASC";
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);
$i = 0;
$count = 0;
$total_rows = $result->num_rows;
$halfsize = $total_rows / 2;
$FirstArray = array();
$SecondArray = array();
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)){
while ($count <= $halfsize){
$FirstArray[] = $row['DisplayName'];
//echo "$FirstArray[$count]";
$count++;
}
$SecondArray[] = $row['DisplayName'];
//echo "$SecondArray[$count]";
}
echo "<table>";
for($j=0; $j<count($FirstArray); $j++){
echo "<tr><td>". $FirstArray[$j] . "</td><td>" . $SecondArray[$j] . "</td> </tr>";
}
echo "</table>";
And I just get the same field (the first result) for all of the first column (The First Array?) and then the second column (SecondArray) contains all of the results.

Answer 1

Your issue is not your PHP or your MySQL but your output handling.
So there's an array of data that's being dumped on your HTML and you need to order it to look nice . Two columns reading left to right in a table format.
The <table> tag is perfect for this, and while most people hate the table tag, it is useful for tabled data.
It's worth noting that due to the flexibility and accommodating nature of CSS/HTML that this is not the only correct way but one of many ways this issue can be addressed
Method:
You have a while loop outputting one unit at a time, a unit in this case being a name in a <td></td> block. So that's your unit:
while {
print "unit";
}
So if you have two columns you want to arrange then you need to tell the while loop to distinguish between the first and the second column, this can be done with detecting if the counter (+1 for each itteration) is odd or even.
You can do this with the modulus divisor in PHP:
while {
counter++
if (counter%2) == 1 ){
//odd number.
}
}
So to sum it all up and give you a basic example:
$output = "";
$rowsTotal = mysqli_num_rows($result); //from your original code.
$counter = 0;
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
$counter++; //plus 1 each itteration
if (($counter%2) == 1){
/// is odd so open the row of the table.
$output .= "<tr>";
}
$output .= "<td>";
if (empty($row['DisplayName'])) {
// it's empty!
if (empty($row['FirstName'])) {
$output .= $row['LastName'];
}
else {
$output .= $row["LastName"] . ", " . $row["FirstName"];
}
}
else {
// Do stuff with the field
$output .= $row["DisplayName"] . "";
}
$output .= "</td>";
if (($counter%2) == 0){
// if even so close the row of the table.
$output .= "</tr>";
}
// special case: If there area total of odd number of outputs
if($counter == $rowsTotal && $counter%2 == 1){
// so the last counter value is an odd number so force closure
// of </tr> (or add a blank space)
$output .= "<td> </td></tr>
}
} //end while.
...
print "<table>";
print $output;
print "</table>";
I don't want to dive deep into getting really creative with CSS but you can use CSS to finesse and improve the core HTML output setout above with some wonderful Cascading Style sheets, but above is a very rough outline of the sortof approach you could use to simulate a base level intelligence for the script to output names in the layout you are looking for.
Good luck.
CSS example:
table td {
background-color:#000;
color: #fff;
font-size:1.5rem;
text-align:left;
width:49%; /* 50% sometimes causes overflow, so set a tiny bit smaller */
padding:0.25rem;
margin:0;
box-sizing: border-box;
}
VERSION 2
From comments, OP Needs the results from the SQL query to be two columns, rather than two rows. This means that table (a row structure) is inappropriate for this output and so instead we should use a more customised CSS / div tag set:
The layout would be two columns of approximatly 49% width each, and then each column contains block elements, This blob of blocks will then need to be split in half and a divider added to generate two shorter columns from one long one.
The block elements are output in a foreach loop and once the halfway point is met then an extra HTML code is inserted to break the elements up into a second <div> . this is a little bit hacky it feel to me, but, does the job.
requirements:
A predefined counter of result rows. One can easily be generated. And that the SQL query is already ordered in the intended way, using MySQL ORDER BY.
Semi-Pseudo code:
$array = SQL data result.
$counter = counter of how many array rows are returned.
$divisorCount = ceil($counter /2);
$foreachCount = 1
foreach ($array as $row){
$foreachCount++;
$block[] = "<div class='block'>".$row['data']."</div>\n";
if($foreachCount > $divisorCount){
$foreachCount = 0; //reset, as this will not be true again.
end($block);
$key = key($block); //most recent block array reference.
$block[$key] .= "</div><div class='column'>"; //the insert.
}
}
unset($row,$key,$foreachCount,$divisorCount); //tidyup.
The above generates a bunch of array elements, one for each name. There is an inserted splitter that ends the initial column and starts a second column, finally we wrap the whole block array into a final <div> wrapper.
$output = "<div class='tableContainer'>
<div class='column'>".implode($block)."</div>
</div>";
The above output will be the opener for the first column but the closer for the second column. Within output we now have the complete columns for two columns of all results contained in a Div Container element.
The following CSS classes would need some tweaking to get right but should be a start:
CSS
.block{
line-height: 2rem;
display:block;
padding:0.25rem;
box-sizing:border-box;
}
.column{
width: 49%;
min-width:150px; /* or whatever. */
display:inline-block;
}
.tableContainer{
max-width: 800px; /* or whatever. */
min-width: 300px; /* or whatever. */
width:100%;
margin:auto; //centres it.
}
The CSS would be 49% rather than 50% because box sizes can have a tendancy to overflow on different browsers (Firefox especially), but the $output would finally be:
HTML
<div class='tableContainer'>
<div class='column'><div class='block'>My Name</div>
<div class='block'>Your Name</div>
<div class='block'>His Name</div></div>
<div class='column'><div class='block'>Their Name</div>
<div class='block'>Her Name</div>
<div class='block'>Smacked HorseBombs</div>
</div>
</div>
You could also possibly substitute display:inline-block for float:left, but thats the basics, have a play on jsfiddle to tweak as you need.

Answer 2

I won't use tables for this. There may be some other css tricks. But for the sake of question, I'm answering.
Create two arrays.
Get the size of resultset with mysqli_num_rows, and divide it by two, then walk through this first array and move them until halfsize into array1. And then remainig into array2.
At the end you'll have something like this
Array 1 Array 2
------- -------
[0] Row 1 [0] Row 4
[1] Row 2 [1] Row 5
[2] Row 3
Then walk through it and fill your html table. (with controlling them against being empty)
for($i=0; $i<count($array1); $i++){
echo '<tr><td>'.$array1[$i].'</td><td>'.$array2[$i].'</td></tr>';
}