displaying values from database into an html table - php

Question

i want to display values from a database (a list of categories) into a table that has 2 columns and x number of rows.
I want my web page to display like this:
Apes Cats
Apples Cherries
Bats Tigers
Berries Zebras
Instead of
Apes Apples
Bats Bears
Cats Cherries
Tigers Zebras
Here is my code so far:
<table border="0" bordercolor="#FFCC00" style="background-color:#FFFFCC" width="400" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3">
<?php
$query = "SELECT * FROM category ORDER BY cat_name";
$data = mysqli_query($dbc, $query);
while ($category = mysqli_fetch_array($data)) {
?>
<tr>
<td><?php echo $category['cat_name'] ?></td>
</tr>
<?php } ?>
</table>

Answer 1

Here's the basic idea:
You get the count of the data via num_rows
Divide by two.
Now, the result of your division will be the number of rows.
Output a loop echoing value for row x and x+ num rows. For example the output of line 1 would be :
<tr><td>$row[val1][data]</td><td>$row[val5][data]</td></tr>
So, your loop would ultimately output:
val 1 | val 5
val 2 | val 6
val 3 | val 7
val 4 | val 8
The loop should end when your incrementing variable = num_rows. Should be pretty straightforward from there. Good luck.

Answer 2

Try this (haven't tested it though):
<table border="0" bordercolor="#FFCC00" style="background-color:#FFFFCC" width="400" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3">
<?php
$query = "SELECT * FROM category ORDER BY cat_name";
$data = mysqli_query($dbc, $query);
# Calculate total rows and half rows, rounded up
$full_row_count = mysqli_num_rows($data);
$half_row_count = ceil($full_row_count / 2);
$i = 0;
while ($i <= $half_row_count) {
# Set the result pointer for first column ...
mysqli_data_seek($data, $i);
$category_1 = mysqli_fetch_array($data);
# ... then calculate the offset for the second column ...
$col_2_offset = $i + $half_row_count;
# .. and make sure it's not larger than total rows - 1
if ($col_2_offset <= $full_row_count - 1) {
mysqli_data_seek($data, $col_2_offset);
$category_2 = mysqli_fetch_array($data);
} else {
$category_2 = array('cat_name' => '');
}
?>
<tr>
<td><?php echo $category_1['cat_name'] ?></td>
<td><?php echo $category_2['cat_name'] ?></td>
</tr>
<?php
$i++;
}
?>
</table>
Hope this helps !

Answer 3

You can add an another variable say, $i, to the loop and just increment this through as follows:
<table border="0" bordercolor="#FFCC00" style="background-color:#FFFFCC" width="400" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3">
<?php
$query = "SELECT * FROM category ORDER BY cat_name";
$data = mysqli_query($dbc, $query);
$i=1;
while ($category = $data->fetch_row()) {
?>
<tr>
<td><?php echo $i; ?></td>
<td><?php echo $category[1] ?></td>
</tr>
<?php
$i++;
} ?>
</table>
EDIT: Updated to fetch row data for each result and assume that cat_name is the second item in the array i.e. $category[1].

Answer 4

If it doesn't have to be a table and your fine with browsers that support CSS 3, then you can use CSS columns:
http://jsfiddle.net/QKuDL/
Otherwise you'll need to sort the results first (untested - PHP is not my strong suit):
<?php
$query = "SELECT * FROM category ORDER BY cat_name";
$data = mysqli_query($dbc, $query);
$col_count = 2;
$max_items_per_col = ceil( mysqli_num_rows ( $data ) / $col_count );
$cols = array(array());
$col = 0;
while ($category = mysqli_fetch_array($data)) {
if (count($cols[$col]) >= $max_items_per_col) {
$col++;
}
$cols[$col][] = $category['cat_name'];
}
?>
<table> <!-- all of those attributes should be CSS instead -->
<?php for ($i = 0; $i < $max_items_per_col; $i++) { ?>
<tr>
<?php foreach ($cols as $col) { ?>
<td><?php if(isset($col[$i])) echo $col[$i]; ?></td>
<?php } ?>
</tr>
<?php } ?>
</table>

Answer 5

<?php
$query = "SELECT * FROM category ORDER BY cat_name";
$data = mysqli_query($dbc, $query);
$midpoint = ceil($data->num_rows / 2);
$i=0;
while ($category = $data->fetch_array()) {
if ($i < $midpoint)
$left[$i] = "<td>" . $category['cat_name'] . "</td>";
else
$right[$i - $midpoint] = "<td>" . $category['cat_name'] . "</td>";
$i++;
}
print "<table>";
for ($j=0; $j < $i; $j++)
{
print "<tr>" . $left[$j];
if (array_key_exists($j, $right)) print $right[$j];
print "</tr>";
}
print "</table>";