Comment component with nested replies

[formasfunction]

I'm looking for a simple tutorial on how to create a comment section for a website that allows users to reply to previous comments, indenting them much in the same way a site like slashdot does.  I have a working script for a simple list but I'm not sure how to write a recursive function to deal with the rest of it.  I've done quite a few searches for previous solutions but I get the feeling I'm not using the right terms.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[kireol]

There are systems already done that do this.  try googling "php slashdot style comments".

 

 

but what you are looking for is HTML <table> alignment.

[formasfunction]

It's not the html or css formatting of the comments that I need help with, it's writing a function that correctly cycles through comment ids and identifies child comments, placing them in the correct order.

[kireol]

well then I dont understand your question.

 

I'm getting that you dont know how to code the indent section for the "comments", and that would be HTML/tables.  the php part would handle how much the colspan would use

[formasfunction]

I'm not exactly sure how to write the actual recursive function that will take an array returned from a MySQL table named COMMENTS with the following columns:

id

comment

parent_id

timestamp

 

Comments without a parent_id are top level and ordered by the timestamp.  However, any comment with a parent_id will need to be ordered under the comment who's id matches the parent_id, secondarily by it's timestamp.

 

A straight loop won't allow me to take the parent_id's into account.  I'd like to do it all with just one hit to the database.