tell me your coding practices...

[CavemanUK]

Hi, im pretty new to PHP coding.. ive dabbled with modifying CMS packages in the past but its only the last few weeks ive dived in and written my first complete site.  Because its my first, i can guarantee its very sloppy and baddly structured.  Luckily its a private site thats password protected so its unlikely it will get attacked.. anyway.. getting back on subject, i was wondering about coding etiquette... i have a few basic questions that i was hoping people could give a basic answer to...

 

firstly, declaring variables.  Is this a good idea.  is it required? and do I need to clear/unload them at the end of the php script?

 

secondly, it seems the following piece of code is the common way of querying a database...

$query = "SELECT * FROM table";
$result = mysql_query($query);
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC))
{
..code
}

 

is this completely necessary for every query (with multiple records)?

 

i mean couldnt the variables be left out and be shortened to..

 

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array( mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table"), MYSQL_ASSOC))

 

or does this cause problems?

 

thirdly, Im not an expert on html or css coding and have had a little trouble using <div> tags... for this site, i reverted back to using tables as it seemed much each for working with the data from mysql.  Is this ok, or do i really need to start working with <div>'s.  has anyone got a good tutorial for working with <div>'s on a tabular layout?

 

Hope you guys can see your way to helping me out..

 

Caveman

 

 

 

[roopurt18]

This code snippet should answer your number two.

<?php

$idx = 0;

$i = 0;
while( $row = get_row( query() ) ) {
  echo $row . '<br /><br />';
  // Comment out this if block to see what would happen in the real world
  if( $i++ == 10 ) {
    break;
  }
}

function get_row( $data ) {
  global $idx;
  if( $idx > 2 ) {
    return false;
  }
  echo 'get_row()<br />';
  return $data[$idx++];
}

function query() {
  global $idx;
  echo 'query()<br />';
  $idx = 0;
  return array( 'a', 'b', 'c' );
}

?>

[deadonarrival]

You don't have to declare a variable's EXISTANCE, but make sure it has a value before you try to compare it to anything

It's not required or expected, but it doesn't do any harm. There's no need to clear them at the end of the script, that happens anyway.

 

The method you show for accessing a database is almost universal, simply because it works well. You CAN take the variables away, but it starts to get messy.

 

If you're desperate to shorten it, why not make your own function along the lines of

function getrow($sql)
{
$qry = mysql_query($sql);
return mysql_fetch_array($qry,MYSQL_ASSOC);
}

 

And use

while($row = getrow("SELECT * FROM where WHILE foo=bar"))
{
#Sing the blues
}

 

To cut it down to something readable, but a little more compact.