How to display some sql query data in a loop or array?

[gazzo1967]

Hi All

I wonder if some one can help as im a 'newbie' at php?

I have tried to do this but i just can seem to get my head around it.

 

What i am trying to do is to echo out fields once 

 

"Ref Number",

"Course Name",

"First Name",

"Last Name",

"Employee Number",

"Email Address",

 

But then echo out the following fields repeatedly for the user entered data

"Question",

"Answer",

 

i have researched but every array/loop i look at does not use a query as the output..

My database is postgres.

 

Here is my code below but it just comes up blank when i try to run it

if i remove the if statement it works but gives out all data

 

thanks for the help

Regards Gaz

 

$i = 0;
$currentuser = 'init';
$nextuser = 'init'; // added init as sometimes php doesnt like comparing null strings

while ($row = pg_fetch_array($result)) {

$currentuser = $row['Email Address'];
if ($currentuser != $nextuser){
	
//show info below once
echo '<div style="border:1px solid #000000; padding:15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">';
echo '<p><strong>Job Reference Number:</strong><br> ' . $row['Ref Number'] . '</p>';
echo '<p><strong>Application:</strong><br> ' . $row['Course Name'] . '</p>';
echo '<p><strong>First Name:</strong><br> ' . $row['First Name'] . '</p>';
echo '<p><strong>Last Name:</strong><br> ' . $row['Last Name'] . '</p>';
echo '<p><strong>Employee Number:</strong><br> ' . $row['Employee Number'] . '</p>';
echo '<p><strong>Work Email Address:</strong><br> ' . $row['Email Address'] . '</p>';

//loop these entrys for the user then return to the begining for the next user
echo nl2br('<p><strong>Question:</strong><br> ' . $row['Question'] . '</p>');
echo nl2br('<p><strong>Answer:</strong><br> ' . $row['Answer'] . '</p>');
echo '</div>';
}

$rows = pg_num_rows($result);

if ($rows == 0)
{
echo 'Sorry, but we can not find an entry to match your query<br><br>';
}

Edited June 13, 2017 by gazzo1967

[gazzo1967]

apologies i spotted something on here but even tho i put it in still didn't work lol

before  the // show info below once it should have

$nextuser = $currentuser;

 

Sorry

[ginerjm]

Huh?

 

What comes up blank - the whole page?

Try turning on php error checking.  And be sure that you have data to show before going into the loop.

[gazzo1967]

Hi thank you for responding

i do have error reporting on and didn't post the whole code as the query, connection etc work fine :0)

 

If i change my output  to this it returns my query

while ($row = pg_fetch_assoc($result)) {
	

echo '<div style="border:1px solid #000000; padding:15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">';
echo '<p><strong>Job Reference Number:</strong><br> ' . $row['Ref Number'] . '</p>';
echo '<p><strong>Application:</strong><br> ' . $row['Course Name'] . '</p>';
echo '<p><strong>First Name:</strong><br> ' . $row['First Name'] . '</p>';
echo '<p><strong>Last Name:</strong><br> ' . $row['Last Name'] . '</p>';
echo '<p><strong>Employee Number:</strong><br> ' . $row['Employee Number'] . '</p>';
echo '<p><strong>Work Email Address:</strong><br> ' . $row['Email Address'] . '</p>';

echo nl2br('<p><strong>Question:</strong><br> ' . $row['Question'] . '</p>');
echo nl2br('<p><strong>Answer:</strong><br> ' . $row['Answer'] . '</p>');
echo '</div>';
}

it might help to show the data structure in my table

 

this would be for only one user

 

"Ref Number", "Course Name", "First Name","Last Name","Employee Number","Email Address","Question","Answer"  (question 1)

"Ref Number", "Course Name", "First Name","Last Name","Employee Number","Email Address","Question","Answer"  (question 2)

"Ref Number", "Course Name", "First Name","Last Name","Employee Number","Email Address","Question","Answer"  (question 3)

"Ref Number", "Course Name", "First Name","Last Name","Employee Number","Email Address","Question","Answer"  (question 4)

"Ref Number", "Course Name", "First Name","Last Name","Employee Number","Email Address","Question","Answer"  (question 5)

etc upto 20 questions

 

then next user would be the same and so on

what i am trying to achieve is

User 1

 

"Ref Number",

"Course Name",

"First Name",

"Last Name",

"Employee Number",

"Email Address",

 

"Question", ( 1)

"Answer", (1)

 

"Question", ( 2)

"Answer", (2)

"Question", ( 3)

"Answer", (3)

"Question", ( 4)

"Answer", (4)

etc till the end of the user 1 entries

 

then loop to the next

user 2

 

i hope that makes sense

 

Gary

Edited June 13, 2017 by gazzo1967

[ginerjm]

Is 'pg_fetch_array' a valid function?  What extension is it part of?

[benanamen]

Is 'pg_fetch_array' a valid function?  What extension is it part of?

 

 

Awe cmon ginerjm, I know you are more experienced than to make a post like that. RTFM or use Google.  

 

http://php.net/manual/en/function.pg-fetch-array.php

Edited June 13, 2017 by benanamen

[ginerjm]

Just never heard of it and thought it was some oddball one.  My bad....

 

Re: the real problem tho,

 

If the _array call is not working gotta wonder why sicne it shouldn't matter.  OP should do a var dump of the $result and see exactly how his query results are being returned.  Of course, using the _assoc function is a better choice since he doesn't need the numeric indices.

 

Could it have anything to do with the index names in use, with the embedded spaces?

[gazzo1967]

Changing to assoc returns the same results.

 

i was led to believe that to output how i want to do it was done by definining how i echo my query result

Our server is running postgres 

[ginerjm]

You previously said if I change to this:  (meaning fetch_assoc) it worked.

[gazzo1967]

apologies

i have tried both array and assoc and it returns the same resulys

[gazzo1967]

No takers?

I am a new beginner to php and i'm the type of person that learns by seeing an example. Unfortunately all the examples i see online do not use a query but pre-populated data and not having the level of experience (yet) i find it difficult to apply what i need to do.

The reason why there are different code examples is my bad as i have tried different ways of returning the query result.

I would appreciate anyone who could help

[Jacques1]

Several things:

• If you want help with code, we need the whole code or at least a very carefully shortened version of it. What you've shown above isn't even syntactically valid, so now we have no idea if that's the whole problem or just the result of sloppy editing.
• Turning up the error reporting isn't enough. You also need to either display or log the messages -- and read them, of course. A blank page is a strong indicator that you not have proper error handling. Also note that the pg extension requires manual error checks after every single function call. You don't have that.
• You'll make your life a lot easier if you turn the query result into a more convenient array structure instead of trying to build the HTML markup directly from the rows. For example, create an array with one row per user and collect the questions and answers within the user records.
• You should consider replacing the pg_* functions with PDO. This is a universal database interface which is much more convenient than the low-level interface you're currently using. For example, you can make PDO automatically throw an exception whenever something goes wrong, so there's no need for manual error checks.