PHP: Stacking an array over multiple columns in a table [duplicate]

Question

I have an interesting problem, seems like it would have been solved long ago but can't find anything.

I have a simple array, variable length.

I need to put the array in a table BUT only X columns wide. Meaning, if the array has 25 values, and I only want 3 columns, there will be 2 columns of 11 and 1 column of 3 (the remainder).

Like this (each number represents a value in a table cell):

1    12    23
2    13    24
3    14    25
4    15
5    16
6    17
7    18
8    19
9    20
10   21
11   22

I've spent all day afternoon this, seems like it would be simple, but either my game is off today or it's harder than I think.

Of course, no problem going horizontally, easy, but vertically is the requirement and I never know the size of the array and number of columns can vary.

Thanks for any help!

I can imagine this to be a bit tricky simply because, as long as the left columns are equal in size and are longer than the right-most column, that would be a valid solution. That is to say, two columns of 10 and one of 5 would fit the requirements, two columns of 12 and one of 1 would fit, two columns of 9 and one of 7 would fit... — Chris Forrence
– Chris Forrence, Commented Oct 11, 2016 at 22:15
so is the number of columns and the length of a column an argument for a function that should "print" it? — jakub wrona
– jakub wrona, Commented Oct 11, 2016 at 22:16
What is the rule how many items go into one column? What's the maximum column count that is allowed? This looks like a simple problem you can solve in one foreach loop ;) — Jürgen Hörmann
– Jürgen Hörmann, Commented Oct 11, 2016 at 22:18

nanocv · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-11 22:35:13Z

8

In the case you want the last column to have as many elements as posible to fit the other columns (the most dynamic case for this problem), this would be a solution:

<?php

$numberOfColumns = 3;
$myArray = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25];

$arrayLength = count($myArray); // 25
$columnLength = ceil($arrayLength / $numberOfColumns); // 9

for ($i = 0; $i < $columnLength; $i++) {

  for ($j = 0; $j < $numberOfColumns; $j++) {

    $arrayIndex = $j * $columnLength + $i;
    if ($arrayIndex < $arrayLength) {
      echo $myArray[$arrayIndex] . " ";
    }

  }

  echo '<br>';
}

This is the output in my browser:

answered Oct 11, 2016 at 22:35

nanocv

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1 Comment

nanocv Over a year ago

@BillKervaski It's a very good practice to accept the right answer in order to support users motivation. Please consider doing that here :)

FlameStorm · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-26 20:02:29Z

1

You will don't believe it.

All you need is just HTML and CSS - https://jsfiddle.net/wz9kp6x0/

<div class="xtable">
  <div>1</div>
  <div>2</div>
  <div>3</div>
  ...
  <div>24</div>
  <div>25</div>
</div>

and

.xtable {
  column-count: 3;
}

See also docs: https://www.w3schools.com/css/css3_multiple_columns.asp

Enjoy! ;)

answered Dec 26, 2018 at 20:02

FlameStorm

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Comments

Bill Kervaski · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-12 12:01:55Z

0

Thanks nanocv! Here's your solution changed up a bit to directly answer the question:

$numberOfColumns = 3;
$myArray = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25);

$arrayLength = count($myArray); // 25
$columnLength = ceil($arrayLength / $numberOfColumns); // 9

for($i=0; $i<$columnLength; $i++) {

    $table .= '<tr>';

    for ($j = 0; $j < $numberOfColumns; $j++) {

        $arrayIndex = $j * $columnLength + $i;

        if($arrayIndex < $arrayLength) {
            $table .= '<td>' . $myArray[$arrayIndex] . '</td>';
        } else {
            $table .= '<td></td>'; // render empty cells
        }

    }

    $table .= '</tr>';
}

echo '<table border="1">' . $table . '</table>';

edited Oct 12, 2016 at 12:01

answered Oct 12, 2016 at 11:55

Bill Kervaski

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1 Comment

nanocv Over a year ago

Sorry, I didn't know you wanted to build a HTML table with the data. I'm happy you could find the solution to your problem! Please, consider accepting my answer.

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