PHP Table generation

Question

I have been using the following function (in the kohana html class in a table) to generate tables.

function table($columns,$reverse=false,$fill=false,array $attr=null){
 $c = '';
 //ugly hack, looking for fix
 $max=sizeof(max($columns));
 for($i=0;$i<sizeof($columns);$i++){
 $column = $columns[$i];
 if($fill==true){
 $l = ($max-sizeof($column));
 for($ii=0;$ii<$l;$ii++){
 array_push($column,'');
 }
 }
 if($reverse==true){
 $columns[$i] = array_reverse($column);
 }else{
 $columns[$i] = $column;
 }
 }
 for($i=0,$l=sizeof($columns);$i<$l;$i++){
 $column = $columns[$i];
 $c.="<tr>";
 for($ii=0,$ll=sizeof($column);$ii<$ll;$ii++){
 $c.="<td>".$column[$ii]."</td>";
 }
 $c.="</tr>";
 }
 return "<table".html::attributes($attr).">".$c."</table>";
}

And then I have been calling it like so:

echo html::table(array(
 array('colunm 1 row 1','colunm 2 row 1'),
));

And a reversed table that auto fills the columns.

echo html::table(array(
 array('colunm 1 row 1','colunm 2 row 1'),
 array('column 1 row 2','column 2 row 2')
),true,true);

• Sam Wilson: There's also PEAR's HTML_Table package, if you're into that sort of thing. :-)

Answer 1

Didn't test, but I would write it something like this:

function table($rows, $reverse = false, $fill = false, array $attr = null) {
 $c = '';
 $max_cols = sizeof(max($columns));
 foreach ($rows as $columns) {
 if ($fill && sizeof($columns) < $max_cols) {
 $columns = array_merge($columns, array_fill(0, $max_cols - sizeof($columns), ''));
 }
 if ($reverse) {
 $columns = array_reverse($columns);
 }
 $c .= '<tr><td>' . implode('</td><td>', $columns) . '</td></tr>';
 }
 return '<table>' . $c . '</table>';
}

• William: Sweet, I wasn't aware of array_fill or implode. Very convenient and it shortens the function by a lot. There was one bug $fill_to should be $max_cols. I decided to change some of the naming from $columns to $rows. Here is the edited version: codepad.org/UQyynzqW Thanks.
• h0tw1r3: that's what i get for not testing. fixed the variable, and naming to make more sense.

Answer 2

• Some of the variable names could benefit from being slightly less terse.
• Aren't you passing in an array of rows? Each element in the array is then an array of columns.
• What is max? Is it trying to find the row with the most columns? Either rename to something more self-documenting or add a comment.
• array_map may be worth a look and could feasibly allow for reverse to be replaced with a callback function.

• Consider changing the last lines of the function to:

  return "<table".html::attributes($attr).">".$c."</table>";
  

• William: I'm not sure what I was thinking for the return statement. Or rather I wasn't thinking %). Also, yes I'm passing in an array of rows which contains an array of columns.
• William: Yes max is attempting to find the max number of columns. Basically if you reverse a table with out all the rows having the same number of columns, the table will fill to the left. By passing in true to $fill it adds additional empty cells to the end of table so it doesn't fill to the left. What would you advise for a naming alternative to $max? That's the php function name so I thought it was well suited.
• ramblex: Perhaps $max could be called $num_tbl_columns since it's the number of columns in the table.

Answer 3

replace for loops with foreach

• William: I would love to use foreach, but I am unsure how to use it in place of the first for loop. I am reassigning itself as a reversed array at the end of the loop. I don't believe php allows you to reassign the looping variable inside a foreach.
• h0tw1r3: Actually, you can using foreach($array as $key => &$value)