Conditional Statements on Large Page of Data

[tec-4]

I've got a large page with input data that is being pulled dynamically from a database and am wondering if I could simply my approach, or if what I am doing is correct.  Just seems like it's getting a bit cumbersome as the page continues to get larger and larger.

 

For example, I have index.php page being used to display a bunch of product pages and have, for example, 100 pieces of data broken down into sections (price, amenities, interior, exterior, etc).  There are between 3-15 pieces of data per section and am wondering if there is an easier/less invasive way to make them not populate if the database is empty

 

What I'm currently doing:  I'm currently wrapping each data row in an IF statement to only display it if data is in the database, then I have a larger conditional statement around the entire sections so that if no data displays in any of the fields then the entire section would disappear - if that makes sense...This is probably the easiest approach but am wondering if any of you do it different to handle code, etc.

 

Small Example Code:

 

 

            <?PHP if ($data->row1 || $data->row2) { ?>

            <div class="data_example">

              <h2>Interior</h2>

             

            <?PHP if ($data->row1){?>               

              <dl class="data_example">

                <dt>Interior Misc:</dt>

                <dd><?=preg_replace('/[,]/', ', ', $data->row1);?></dd>

              </dl>

            <?PHP }?>

           

            <?PHP if ($data->row1){?> 

              <dl class="data_example">

                <dt>Floors: </dt>

                <dd><?=$data->row2?></dd>

              </dl>

            <?PHP }?>

          </div>

          <?PHP }?>

 

 

[Psycho]

As long as these sections follow a consistent format, then you could do all this programmatically. I would create an array of the structure of the feilds by session and then run a loop to do all of this. Let me take a few minutes to bang out an example/

[redixx]

I have a few things to make your code easier to read. Firstly, don't use uppercase in your php tags. Secondly, don't use shorthand tags (<?=blah?>) as not all server configurations have this enabled, so you may run into problems and it's generally bad practice.

 

When working with PHP and HTML in the way you are, I find using if(): endif; to be prettier and more precise, so you know which closing brackets belong to what statement. You'd do it like this:

 

<?php if ($data->row1 || $data->row2): ?>
  <div class="data_example">
    <h2>Interior</h2>
    
  <?php if ($data->row1): ?>                
    <dl class="data_example">
      <dt>Interior Misc:</dt> 
      <dd><?php echo preg_replace('/[,]/', ', ', $data->row1); ?></dd> 
    </dl>
  <?php endif; ?>
  
  <?php if ($data->row1): ?>  
    <dl class="data_example">
      <dt>Floors: </dt>
      <dd><?php echo $data->row2; ?></dd>
    </dl>
  <?php endif; ?>
</div>
<?php endif; ?>

 

This also works with loops, like this:

<?php foreach($array as $val): ?>
     stuff here
<?php endforeach; ?>

 

One more thing. You are simply checking if($data->row1). If this is false then you'll get an error saying that row1 isn't defined, if you have all errors on (error_reporting(-1)), which you should.

 

So do this instead

if (isset($data->row1)

[Psycho]

Using the current layout as you described above here is a way you could build your page automatically. Just set up the two arrays as needed then the rest of the code will do all the work

<?php

//Array for section/subsection structure
$sectionsAry = array(

    'Interior' => array(
        'Interior Misc' => 'row1',
        'Floors' => 'row2'
    ),

    'Header Section2' => array(
        'Subhead 1 Sec 2' => 'row3',
        'Subhead 2 Sec 2' => 'row4'
    ),
);

//Array to hold formatting rules for values
$subsecFormats = array(
    'Interior Misc' => array ('match'=>'/[,]/', 'replace'=>', ')
);


//Run through each section and subsections
foreach($sectionsAry as $sectionName => $subsectionsAry)
{
    //Create variable to hold the HTML output for the subsection
    $subsectionHTML = '';
    //Process the subsections to see if there is data
    foreach($subsectionsAry as $subsecName => $subsecKey)
    {
        //Check if subsectionhas a value
        if($data->$subsecKey)
        {
            //Generate the HTML for the subsection
            $subsecValue = $data->$subsecKey;
            //Check if the value needs to be formatted
            if(in_array($subsecName, $subsecFormats))
            {
                $match   = $subsecFormats[$subsecName]['match'];
                $replace = $subsecFormats[$subsecName]['replace'];
                $subsecValue = preg_replace($match, $replace, $subsecValue);
            }
            $subsectionHTML .= "<dl class=\"data_example\">\n";
            $subsectionHTML .= "<dt>{$subsectionName}:</dt>\n";
            $subsectionHTML .= "<dd>{$subsecValue}</dd>\n";
            $subsectionHTML .= "</dl>\n";
        }
    }
    //Processing of all subsections complete
    //Check if any had subsections had values
    if($subsectionHTML != '')
    {
        //Show section header
        echo "<div class=\"data_example\">\n";
        echo "<h2>{$sectionName}</h2>\n";
        //Ouptu subsectioncontent
        echo $subsectionHTML;
        //Close div
        echo "</div>\n";
    }
}

?>