Need ideas in proper html rendering with php - php

Question

I have constructed an SQL query to lay out some info on a web page. The query works well. The problem is with each iteration of while loop a CSS class needs to be auto-incremented by 1.
<div class="related-item item1">
'item1' should become 'item2' in the next iteration and so on. Can you give me something ideas how to do it?
<?php
//Construct the SQL query code
$rel = "SELECT entries.*, images.name
FROM entries, images
WHERE entries.id = blog_id
ORDER BY dateposted DESC
LIMIT 0, 3;";
//Send the query to the MySQL server
$result = mysql_query($rel);
//Pull the row as an associative array
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
echo '<div class="related-item item1">
<div class="thumbnail-wrapper">';
echo '<img src="./images/' . $row['name'] . '" alt="How SHAPE Reader Caitlin Flora Lost 182 Pounds"/></div>
<h4 class="related-article-title">
' . $row['subject'] . '
</h4>
</div>';
} //End of while loop
?>

Answer 1

Just keep a counter variable going
$cnt = 1;
while(fetch from db) {
echo "<a class='foo{$cnt}'>click me</a>";
$cnt++;
}
which produces
<a class='foo1'>click me</a>
<a class='foo2'>click me</a>
<a class='foo3'>click me</a>
etc...
but generally this sort of thing is NOT necessary for CSS. You'd have to create a css rule for EVERY one of those <a> elements being created, which gets incredibly ugly and repetitive. There is nth-child support in CSS, so you can write rules which "modify" themselves based on which child an element is (1st, 2nd, ... Nth).

Answer 2

Add an integer and increment it...
<?php
//Construct the SQL query code
$rel = "SELECT entries.*, images.name
FROM entries, images
WHERE entries.id = blog_id
ORDER BY dateposted DESC
LIMIT 0, 3;";
//Send the query to the MySQL server
$result = mysql_query($rel);
$i = 1;
//Pull the row as an associative array
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
echo '<div class="related-item item{$i}">
<div class="thumbnail-wrapper">';
echo '<img src="./images/' . $row['name'] . '" alt="How SHAPE Reader Caitlin Flora Lost 182 Pounds"/></div>
<h4 class="related-article-title">
' . $row['subject'] . '
</h4>
</div>';
$i++;
} //End of while loop
?>