How to represent a binary tree with tables (html)?

Question

Here is a brain-teaser for the brave. I've been at it for days and just can't come with the solution.

I wanted to come out with something like this:

Using html, CSS and PHP only.

I got near, but not quite what I expected. Here is the code in PHP and here is the output.

<table border="0">
<thead>
    <tr>
        <th>Cientoveintiochavos</th>
        <th>Seseintaicuatravos</th>
        <th>Treintaidosavos</th>
        <th>Dieciseisavos</th>
        <th>Octavos</th>
        <th>Cuartos</th>
        <th>Semifinales</th>
        <th>Final</th>
    </tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<?php for($i=0;$i<256;$i++): ?>
    <tr>
        <?php for($n=0,$c=2;$n<8;$n++,$c*=2): ?>
            <?php 
            /*
            if(false){//$i == 0) {
                $rwspn = $c/2+1; 
                $iter = 0;
            } else {
                $rwspn = $c; 
                $iter = $c;//-$c/2+1;
            } 
            */
            $class = ($i%($c*2))?'par':'impar winner';
            if($i%$c==0):?>
                <td rowspan="<?=$c;?>" class="<?=$class;?>"><span><?php echo genRandomString();?></span></td>
            <?php endif; ?>
        <?php endfor; ?>
    </tr>   
<?php endfor; ?>
</tbody>
</table>

If someone knows how to represent a binary tree or a dendrogram or comes up with a smarter code please let me know!

Answer 1

I've done something like this, using divs kinda like @HugoDelsing. The way I handled the lines was to divide each pair into 4 vertically-stacked divs:

1. The first player (border-bottom)
2. A spacer between 1st and 2nd players (border-right)
3. The second player (border-bottom and border-right)
4. A spacer before the next pair (no borders)

Each of these gets 1/4 the height of the pair*, and the total height of a pair gets doubled as you move to the right. If you don't have a power of two, fill slots with placeholders to push everything down the right amount.

*The bottom borders will throw the heights off by 1, so take that into account when styling your rows.

Other Notes
The spacer divs may not be necessary, but for me they easily handled the spacing and getting the different columns to line up correctly.

I used inline styles filled-in by PHP for the heights, so I didn't have an arbitrary depth limit or calculations hard-coded into CSS.

Here's an example.

EDIT
OK, here is teh codez:

<style type="text/css">
    .round{
        float:left;
        width:200px;
    }
    .firstTeam, .secondTeam{
        border-bottom:1px solid #ccc;
        position:relative;
    }
    .firstSpacer, .secondTeam{
        border-right:1px solid #ccc;
    }
    .team{
        position:absolute;
        bottom: 4px;
        left: 8px;
    }
</style>
<div class="round">
    <div class="matchup">
        <div class="firstTeam" style="height:29px;"><div class="team">Team One</div></div>
        <div class="firstSpacer" style="height:30px;">&nbsp;</div>
        <div class="secondTeam" style="height:29px;"><div class="team">Team Two</div></div>
        <div class="secondSpacer" style="height:30px;">&nbsp;</div>
    </div>
    <div class="matchup">
        <div class="firstTeam" style="height:29px;"><div class="team">Team Three</div></div>
        <div class="firstSpacer" style="height:30px;">&nbsp;</div>
        <div class="secondTeam" style="height:29px;"><div class="team">Team Four</div></div>
        <div class="secondSpacer" style="height:30px;">&nbsp;</div>
    </div>
    <div class="matchup">
        <div class="firstTeam" style="height:29px;"><div class="team">Team Five</div></div>
        <div class="firstSpacer" style="height:30px;">&nbsp;</div>
        <div class="secondTeam" style="height:29px;"><div class="team">Team Six</div></div>
        <div class="secondSpacer" style="height:30px;">&nbsp;</div>
    </div>
    <div class="matchup">
        <div class="firstTeam" style="height:29px;"><div class="team">Team Seven</div></div>
        <div class="firstSpacer" style="height:30px;">&nbsp;</div>
        <div class="secondTeam" style="height:29px;"><div class="team">Team Eight</div></div>
        <div class="secondSpacer" style="height:30px;">&nbsp;</div>
    </div>
</div>
<div class="round">
    <div class="matchup">
        <div class="firstTeam" style="height:59px;"><div class="team">Team One</div></div>
        <div class="firstSpacer" style="height:60px;">&nbsp;</div>
        <div class="secondTeam" style="height:59px;"><div class="team">Team Three</div></div>
        <div class="secondSpacer" style="height:60px;">&nbsp;</div>
    </div>
    <div class="matchup">
        <div class="firstTeam" style="height:59px;"><div class="team">Team Five</div></div>
        <div class="firstSpacer" style="height:60px;">&nbsp;</div>
        <div class="secondTeam" style="height:59px;"><div class="team">Team Eight</div></div>
        <div class="secondSpacer" style="height:60px;">&nbsp;</div>
    </div>
</div>
<div class="round">
    <div class="matchup">
        <div class="firstTeam" style="height:119px;">&nbsp;</div>
        <div class="firstSpacer" style="height:120px;">&nbsp;</div>
        <div class="secondTeam" style="height:119px;">&nbsp;</div>
        <div class="secondSpacer" style="height:120px;">&nbsp;</div>
    </div>
</div>
<div class="round">
    <div class="matchup">
        <div class="firstTeam" style="height:239px;">&nbsp;</div>
    </div>
</div>

Answer 2

I wouldnt use a table but divs.

• create a column container div with relative/absolute position with a fixed width (eg: 200px) for each col.
• Each column container has inner divs with a height and lineheight of double the previous column container
• create a long black vertical line image (length atleast the half the size of the largest height of inner divs in any column. Start the line with a horizontal line of 200px wide to the left (so rotate an L with 180degrees). Leave about half the text height of free space above the horizontal line in the image, so the line will be under the text.
• set this image as background to the inner div of each column container and position it at left center; repeat = none;

Some sample code (without images)

<style type="text/css">
div.col { position:absolute;border:1px solid #f00;width:200px;top:0px; }
div.col1 { left:0px; }
div.col1 div { height:20px; line-height:20px; }
div.col2 { left:200px; }
div.col2 div { height:40px; line-height:40px; }
div.col3 { left:400px; }
div.col3 div { height:80px; line-height:80px; }
div.col4 { left:600px; }
div.col4 div { height:160px; line-height:160px; }
div.col5 { left:800px; }
div.col5 div { height:320px; line-height:320px; }
</style>


<div class='col1 col'>
    <div>player1</div>
    <div>player2</div>
    <div>player3</div>
    <div>player4</div>
    <div>player5</div>
    <div>player6</div>
    <div>player7</div>
    <div>player8</div>
    <div>player9</div>
    <div>player10</div>
    <div>player11</div>
    <div>player12</div>
    <div>player13</div>
    <div>player14</div>
    <div>player15</div>
    <div>player16</div>
</div>
<div class='col2 col'>
    <div>player1</div>
    <div>player3</div>
    <div>player5</div>
    <div>player7</div>
    <div>player9</div>
    <div>player11</div>
    <div>player13</div>
    <div>player15</div>
</div>
<div class='col3 col'>
    <div>player1</div>
    <div>player5</div>
    <div>player9</div>
    <div>player13</div>
</div>
<div class='col4 col'>
    <div>player1</div>
    <div>player9</div>
</div>
<div class='col5 col'>
    <div>player1</div>
</div>

Answer 3

Looks like you're almost there. Nice work! I think the center alignment you want is in CSS

td {
    vertical-align: middle;
}

I don't think you can get the lines to work using borders. You might try a background image for them instead.