Formatting data into HTML table

Question

I'm having a particularly interesting problem. Perhaps my "don't remember the last time I slept" logic is failing...

Anyway, I'm grabbing a list of users from a database table and want to stick it in an HTML table. This works perfect:

$table->construct_header( $lang->username );

while ( $user = $db->fetch_array( $user_query ) )
{
    $link = '<a href="'.$settings[ 'url' ].'/'.get_profile_link( $user[ 'uid' ] ).'" target="_blank">'.$user[ 'username' ].'</a>';
    $table->construct_cell( $link );
    $table->construct_row();
}

However, I want to have three columns. Naturally, I tried this:

$table->construct_header( $lang->username );
$table->construct_header( $lang->username );
$table->construct_header( $lang->username );

while ( $user = $db->fetch_array( $user_query ) )
{
    $static $i = 1;
    if ( $i <= 3 )
    {
        $link = '<a href="'.$settings[ 'url' ].'/'.get_profile_link( $user[ 'uid' ] ).'" target="_blank">'.$user[ 'username' ].'</a>';
        $table->construct_cell( $link );
    }
    else
    {
        $table->construct_row();
        $i = 1;
    }
}

Except nothing gets outputted now. Is there some glaring issue I'm not seeing? I basically need to insert a username into three consecutive columns (straight across) and then generate that row and start again.

It is hard to tell without a complete script including the table object class. — mlemos
– mlemos, Commented Feb 20, 2011 at 5:40
As mlemos said - what is in the $table variable? Is that a class provided by the framework you are using? Have you read the docs for it? — Mark Eirich
– Mark Eirich, Commented Feb 20, 2011 at 5:42
First, use the view source option of the browser to see the generated html. You might have messed up in html when generating the table. — Sarwar Erfan
– Sarwar Erfan, Commented Feb 20, 2011 at 5:42
@Mark, yes, it's a class provided by the framework I'm using (MyBB to be exact). It's pretty basic and the way I'm using it should work just fine. @Sarwar, nothing but the table header's get outputted, but the class should handle everything the way it is. — Steven
– Steven, Commented Feb 20, 2011 at 5:47
Do you need to call something to tell $table that you're done defining cells and rows? — Mark Eirich
– Mark Eirich, Commented Feb 20, 2011 at 5:55

Mark Eirich · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-20 06:31:09Z

1

Here's the basic approach I typically use:

$i = 0;
echo '<table><tbody><tr>';
while ( $user = $db->fetch_array( $user_query ) ) {
    if ($i && $i%3 == 0) echo '</tr><tr>';
    $i++;
    echo '<td><a href="'.$settings[ 'url' ].'/'.get_profile_link( $user[ 'uid' ] ).'" target="_blank">'.$user[ 'username' ].'</a></td>';
}
echo '</tr></tbody></table>';

I'm not familiar with MyBB's table class, but this will likely work:

$table->construct_header( $lang->username );
$table->construct_header( $lang->username );
$table->construct_header( $lang->username );

$i = 0;
while ( $user = $db->fetch_array( $user_query ) ) {
    if ($i && $i%3 == 0) $table->construct_row();
    $i++;
    $table->construct_cell( '<a href="'.$settings[ 'url' ].'/'.get_profile_link( $user[ 'uid' ] ).'" target="_blank">'.$user[ 'username' ].'</a>' );
}
$table->construct_row();

edited Feb 20, 2011 at 6:31

answered Feb 20, 2011 at 5:48

Mark Eirich

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Comments

jterrace · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-20 05:42:43Z

1

$static $i = 1;

should be

static $i = 1;

answered Feb 20, 2011 at 5:42

jterrace

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2 Comments

Steven Over a year ago

I don't know how that got there; it's not in my actual script. Nice catch, though!

jterrace Over a year ago

$i=1 should be outside the loop and you never increment $i

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