Put for loops inside a variable? - php

Question

In all my years of writing PHP, I've never come across an occasion were I would need to put for loops inside a standard php variable.
The reason: I need to pass this variable through a JSON request.
See my current code below.
What I'm doing here is writing a script to generate a standard HTML table based on users requirements (e.g number of rows & columns). And I need to put all this HTML into a variable and pass the variable through a JSON request which then decodes and is displayed to the user.
Any advice/tips/tricks would be a huge help.
<?php
$trows = 5;
$tcolumns = 7;
echo "<table class='table table-striped table-bordered'>";
echo "<thead>";
echo "<tr>";
for ($th = 0; $th < $tcolumns; $th++){echo '<th>[HEADER]</th>';
};
echo "</tr>";
echo "</thead>";
echo "<tbody>";
for ($tr = 0; $tr < $trows; $tr++){ echo '<tr>';
for ($td = 0; $td < $tcolumns; $td++){echo '<td>[CONTENT]</td>';
};
echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</tbody>";
echo "</table>";
?>

Answer 1

<?php
$trows = 5;
$tcolumns = 7;
$result = "";
$result .= "<table class='table table-striped table-bordered'>";
$result .= "<thead>";
$result .= "<tr>";
for ($th = 0; $th < $tcolumns; $th++){$result .= '<th>[HEADER]</th>';
};
$result .= "</tr>";
$result .= "</thead>";
$result .= "<tbody>";
for ($tr = 0; $tr < $trows; $tr++){$result .= '<tr>';
for ($td = 0; $td < $tcolumns; $td++){$result .= '<td>[CONTENT]</td>';
};
$result .= "</tr>";
}
$result .= "</tbody>";
$result .= "</table>";
?>

Answer 2

Create a variable, say $output, to store the html table in.
After you have finished building the table you can do whatever you choose with it. Print it out, use it in another variable to build a json object.
See below
$output = "<table class='table table-striped table-bordered'>";
$output .= "<thead>";
$output .= "<tr>";
for ($th = 0; $th < $tcolumns; $th++){
$output .= '<th>[HEADER]</th>';
};
$output .= "</tr>";
$output .= "</thead>";
$output .= "<tbody>";
for ($tr = 0; $tr < $trows; $tr++){
$output .= '<tr>';
for ($td = 0; $td < $tcolumns; $td++){
$output .= '<td>[CONTENT]</td>';
};
$output .= "</tr>";
}
$output .= "</tbody>";
$output .= "</table>";
echo $output;

Answer 3

Use output buffering:
// Start output buffering
ob_start();
/*
Your code here
*/
// Fetch buffered output and save to variable
$content = ob_get_contents();
// End output buffering, flush buffer. This outputs the buffer content
ob_end_clean();
// If you don't want the buffer to be output use this
// ob_end_clean();