generating html table with data gaps

[bocasz]

i create a table from a multilevel array wich is loaded from a database and processed, the problem is that the data loaded will some times have gaps in the position that it should be inside a certain html column...

i can´t quite explain it so i'll give an example.

 

[0] => array(
	[name] => john
	[id]   => 2
	[data] => array([data1] => array(
					 [0] => array(
					 	      [value] => 10
				         	      [order] => 1
					             )
					 [1] => array(
					 	      [value] => 5
				         	      [order] => 3
					             )

		        [data3] => array([0] => array(
						      [value] => 30
				         	      [order] => 1
						     )
		       )
     )

 

| id | Name |   Data1  | Data2 | Data3 |
| 2  | john | 10 | | 5 |       |   | 2 |
|other varied values...|

 

inside john>data1 there wasnt a order 2 specified so it should create an empty <td> in the correspondent position

and then adapt the rest of the table so that there is always the same number of <td> under each colomn.

 

i managed to make that but the code is really really big and messy with a lot of loops, it is currently using too much processing power to achieve that.

 

so i came here to ask if you guys have any suggestion that could help ease this process

[greatstar00]

//code to select data, and query stored to $q

echo '<table>';

echo '<tr><td>headings</td>.........</tr>';

while ($r=mysql_fetch_assoc($q)){

echo '<tr>';

foreach ($r as $value){

if(is_array($value){

//do array stuff, the inner table, i would recommend put all foreach in a recursive function

}

echo '<td>'.(empty($value)?' ':$value).'</td>';

}

echo '</tr>';

}

echo '</table';