Beginner Array Question (Grouping Values)

[PHPBear]

I've just started learning about arrays and am still taking baby steps. I'd like to ask how to place values from a database table in various groups.

 

From the beginning, I have a database-driven website with pages for thousands of animal species (table gz_life). I have a second table that lists species that are somehow unique, including species that are extinct. In fact, there are three categories of extinction, as illustrated below...

 

Field: TaxonG | Wild_Card

Dinosaurs | Prehistoric

Trilobites | Prehistoric

Mammoth | Ice_Age

Mastodon | Ice_Age

Passenger_Pigeon | Extinct

Dodo | Extinct

 

I would like to somehow classify the above animals into groups, so I can more easily manipulate information relating to them. For example, imagine if I wanted to link pages of living animals to files in one directory and pages representing extinct creatures to a different directory. I might create a switch similar to this:

 

switch($Group)
{
case 'Extinct':
case 'Ice_Age':
case 'Prehistoric':
(Link to Folders/Extinct/MyPage.php
break;
default:
(Link to Folders/Living/MyPage.php
break;
)

 

So how can I put all these URL's into groups or arrays so I can manage them? Below is the basic script I'm working with...

 

<?php
$result = mysql_query('select count(*) from gz_ghosts');
if (($result) && (mysql_result ($result , 0) > 0)) {
} else {
die('Invalid query: ' . mysql_error());
}
{

$Children = mysql_query ("SELECT N, TaxonG, Wild_Card
FROM gz_ghosts");
}

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($Children, MYSQL_ASSOC))
{
$TaxonG = $row['TaxonG'];
$Wild_Card = $row['Wild_Card'];
?>

 

If I add WHERE Wild_Card = 'Ice_Age' to the query, then I can create the following array:

 

$Icy = array($TaxonG);

 

It seems to work, but I can't do much with it, because I don't know how to manipulate it or associate it with URL's.

 

I also discovered the foreach function. If I replace $v with $MyURL, it works - but only on the page MySite/Life/Mammoth. I don't know how to replace $v with an array value that will work for every page matching the array's contents.

 

foreach ($Icy as $k => $v) {
if ($v == "Mammoth") {
echo "Hello World";
}
}

 

I've also played with the in_array function, with a little success, but it still isn't working correctly. I've tried combining foreach and in_array and have tried my experiments both inside and outside the loop.

 

* * * * *

 

Anyway, getting back to the first query I posted (without a where clause), how can I put these values into separate groups and manipulate them?

 

I thought I could create a switch similar to the one below, but I don't know exactly how to construct it.

 

switch($Wild_Card)

 

{

case 'Parataxon':

$Group = 'Parataxon';

// OR...

$Parataxon = 'array($Wild_Card)';

break;

case 'EZ':

$Group = 'EZ':

// OR...

$EZ = 'array($Wild_Card)';

break;

case 'Extinct':

$Extinct = 'array($Wild_Card)';

break;

case 'Ice_Age':

$Ice_Age = 'array($Wild_Card)';

break;

case 'Prehistoric':

$Prehistoric = 'array($Wild_Card)';

break;

case 'Ghost':

$Ghost = 'array($Wild_Card)';

break;

default:

$Joker = '';

break;

}

[/code]

 

Anyway, I think that pretty well explains what I'm trying to do. Any tips?

 

Thanks!

 

P.S. I've looked at the PHP Manual - http://php.net/manua...res.foreach.php - but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Edited November 24, 2012 by PHPBear

[50r]

this is not only going to depend on your php code, but it will also involve the structure of your database. make sure you understand what a word relational in database means.