How to publish mysql data in php by group

PHP
1

Given the following sample dataset,


[FONT=Courier New]+-----------+---------+
| category  | item    |
+-----------+---------+
| fruit     | apple   |
| fruit     | apricot |
| fruit     | banana  |
| fruit     | plum    |
| vegetable | carrot  |
| vegetable | onion   |
| vegetable | potato  |
| vegetable | spinach |
+-----------+---------+[/FONT]

How would I write the query and php so category is formatted in a single tag, like “<h1>” and the items follow with a different tag, like “<li>” so the result would look like this

fruit

  • apple
  • apricot
  • banana
  • plum

vegetable

  • carrot
  • onion
  • potato
  • spinach

Thanks in advance!

2

It’s pretty easy if you build an array with the category as the primary KEY then items in this category as secondary array.

<?php
$list = array(
	"fruit" => array("apple","apricot","banana","plum"),
	"vegetable" => array("carrot","onion","potato","spinach")
);
$display = "";
foreach($list as $category => $items){
	$display .= "<h1>$category</h1>\\r";
	if(is_array($items)){
		$display .= "<ul>\\r";	
		foreach($items as $item){
			$display .= "<li>$item</li>\\r";	
		}
		$display .= "</ul>\\r";
	}
}
?>
<html>
<body>
<?php
if(isset($display)){ echo $display; }
?>
</body>
</html

The $list array can be built like this from query.

<?php
$list = array();
//Your database query and While loop would be here
	$cat = "{$row['category']}";
	$itm = "{$row['item']}";
	$list[$cat][] = $itm;
}
?>
3

Thank you very much! I will now look for a way to put the query results into the array as you have described.