Help! Making PHP output neater

Maypen · Jun 25, 2003

hi guys i am a newbie at PHP. I have written a query to show the content of a table in MySQL. The ouput is correct but i would like it to look neater. I have tried using tables but i can only get it to display the first row in the table. This probably sounds simple to you guys but bear with me. If you can help please do so in detail. Thanks! The code is below:

<html>
<body>
<?php

$db_name="clarendon";
$table_name="merchandise";
$connection=@mysql_connect("localhost","root","&quot

or die("connect fail&quot

;
$db=@mysql_select_db($db_name,$connection) or die("dbselect fail&quot

;
$sql="select stockno,description,size,qty,reorderqty,price,notes from
$table_name";
$result=@mysql_query($sql,$connection)or die("execute fails&quot

;
while ($row=@mysql_fetch_array($result)){
$stockno=$row['stockno'];
$description=$row['description'];
$size=$row['size'];
$qty=$row['qty'];
$reorderqty=$row['reorderqty'];
$price=$row['price'];
$notes=$row['notes'];

echo"<p>$stockno,$description,$size,$qty,$reorderqty,$price,$notes";
}

?>

sleipnir214 · Jun 25, 2003

Wrap your output in <table>, <tr> and <td> tags as appropriate.

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

TANSTAAFL!

Maypen · Jun 25, 2003

Thanks sleipnir, I tried that but only the first row appeared in the table. I think you are right but i think there is some sort of loop and i dont know how to do that.

BDC2 · Jun 25, 2003

Try something like this:

echo"<TABLE><TR><TD>StockNo</TD> <TD>Description</TD> <TD>Size</TD> <TD>qty</TD> <TD>reorderqty</TD> <TD>price</TD> <TD>Notes</TD> </TR>";
while ($row=@mysql_fetch_array($result)){
$stockno=$row['stockno'];
$description=$row['description'];
$size=$row['size'];
$qty=$row['qty'];
$reorderqty=$row['reorderqty'];
$price=$row['price'];
$notes=$row['notes'];
echo"<TR>";
echo"<TD>".$stockno."</TD>";
echo"<TD>".$description."</TD>";
echo"<TD>".$size."</TD>";
echo"<TD>".$qty."</TD>";
echo"<TD>".$reorderqty."</TD>";
echo"<TD>".$price."</TD>";
echo"<TD>".$notes."</TD>";
echo"</TR>";
}
echo"</TABLE>";

BDC.

DRJ478 · Jun 25, 2003

Whenever you create HTML code with PHP you need to make sure that the output is valid HTML.

You need also take browser idiosyncacies into consideration. For example, BDC2's code would not display well in Netscape 4 (yes, there are people using it still) if one of the vars is empty since NS does not display empty table cells. It needs at least a  

The generated HTML code might not dislay because of syntactic errors.

You have several options to do the HTML:

1. Create all output in PHP with echo or print statements.

2. Mix HTML and PHP. That's how it all started. Make a HTML page and then infuse the PHP where needed. You can preview it e.g. in Dremaweaver and check that the HTML code is valid.

3. Seperate HTML and PHP. Use an HTML template class (e.g. fastTemplate) and keep the PHP code free of all dislay issues i.e., make it do the operations you need and let the template take care of the display.

IMO #3 is most fruitful.

Maypen · Jun 26, 2003

BDC2-Thanks for your answer. I will try it later today.

DRJ478- Thanks also for your answer.I dont fully understand template class but i will investigate it and try it. Thanks both!

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Help! Making PHP output neater

Maypen

Technical User

sleipnir214

Programmer

Maypen

Technical User

BDC2

Programmer

DRJ478

IS-IT--Management

Maypen

Technical User

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