Limiting column for fetched data in php

Question

I am trying to put extracted mysql data into a table using php. The issue is that I am able to put the fetched data into either all rows or all columns. What I would like to do is put the fetched data into a column format and as soon as 4 columns are used, the next data should start on the next row and so on.

Currently I am using the logic below, however I am getting everything in a column.

The goal is to limit the data to a page size so the data can be printed.

<div>
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM master_data");

echo "<table border='1'>
<tr>
<th>Accounts</th>
</tr>";
echo "<tr>";
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
echo "<td>";
echo "First Name:" . $row['First_Name'] . "</br>";
echo "Middle Name:" . $row['Middle_Name'] . "</br>";
echo "Last Name:" . $row['Last_Name'] . "</br>";
echo "</td>";
}
echo "</tr>";
echo "</table>"; 


mysql_close($con);
?></div>

Use [PDO or mysqli](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/60174/how-can-i-prevent-sql-injection-in-php?rq=1). — Jonast92, Jan 26 '15 at 14:55
`if ($count++ >= 4) { start new row; $count = 0; }`, basically. — Marc B, Jan 26 '15 at 14:57
Please show us what type of output you want and also what is your database structure. It will help! — A.D., Jan 26 '15 at 14:59
@MarcB Right side `++` gets evaluated *after* the comparison, so you'd end up with 5 iterations per row. Just sayin. — lafor, Jan 26 '15 at 15:08
@A.D. Basically Every column contains basic information such as Name, Address etc. Just small blocks of information about each person. — MysticRose, Jan 26 '15 at 15:39

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 26 '15 at 15:00

1

If I understand your problem correctly you will want to do something like:

Keep a counter to see which number record you're looking at ($i)

$i = 0; // Your counter
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
    // ...

On every 4th iteration of the loop output something like </tr><tr>.

    if ($i % 4 == 0 && $i > 0) // Will return true if `$i` is a multiple of 4 and greater than 0
    {
        echo "</tr><tr>"; // Output your HTML to start a new row
    }

One final note: As others will be pointing out. You should avoid using the MySQL extension. You should use MySQLi or PDO instead.

answered Jan 26 '15 at 15:00

Jonathon

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You should not only check if $i is a multiple of 4, but also check if $i is greater than 0 (otherwise you get a '' on the first run when $i is 0): if ($i % 4 == 0 && $i>0) – Ste Bächler Jan 26 '15 at 15:02
Thanks alot Jonathon, I will try and let you know. – MysticRose Jan 26 '15 at 15:40

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 26 '15 at 17:33

<div>
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM master_data");

echo "<table border='1'>
<tr>
<th>Accounts</th>
</tr>";
echo "<tr>";
$i = 1;
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
if($i == 4)
{
echo "<td>";
echo "First Name:" . $row['First_Name'] . "</br>";
echo "Middle Name:" . $row['Middle_Name'] . "</br>";
echo "Last Name:" . $row['Last_Name'] . "</br>";
echo "</td>";
$i=0;
}
$i++;
}
echo "</tr>";
echo "</table>"; 

mysql_close($con);
?>
</div>

Limiting column for fetched data in php

2 Answers2