Based on your previous question, each ustartlocation
is unique (hence why you can use it as an index in your $devices
array). Using this same concept, you could populate the $devices
array from "ustartlocation
to (ustartlocation + (usize - 1))
".
$devices = array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result_devices)) {
$endLocation = ($row['ustartlocation'] + ($row['usize'] - 1));
for ($location = $row['ustartlocation']; $location <= $endLocation; $location++) {
$devices[$location] = $row['devicename'];
}
}
Because your display-loop already iterates through each U
and displays the device assigned, you shouldn't need to modify any other portion. However, the caveat to this is that the device-name will repeat for every U
instead of span it. To span it, we'll need to do a little more work.
To start, we could just store the usize
in the $devices
array instead of filling in each individual position. Also, to prevent a lot of extra work/calculations later, we'll also store a "placeholder" device for each additional position.
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result_devices)) {
// get the "top" location for the current device
$topLocation = ($row['ustartlocation'] + $row['usize'] - 1);
// populate the real position
$devices[$topLocation] = $row;
// generate a list of "placeholder" positions
for ($location = ($topLocation - 1); $location >= $row['ustartlocation']; $location--) {
$devices[$location] = 'placeholder';
}
}
Next, in your display-loop, you will check if the current position is a placeholder or not (if so, just display the U
and do nothing for the device; if it isn't, display the device, or 'empty'). To achieve the "span" effect for each device, we'll set the cell's rowspan
equal to the device's usize
. If it's 1
, it will be a single cell; 2
, it will span 2 rows, etc (this is why "doing nothing" for the device on the placeholder-rows will work):
for ($i = 0; $i < $cabinets_sqlrow[2]; $i++) {
$u = $cabinets_sqlrow[2] - $i;
echo "<tr>";
echo '<td width="15px" align="right">' . $u . '</td>';
if (isset($devices[$u])) {
// we have a "device" here; if it's a "placeholder", do nothing!
if ($devices[$u] != 'placeholder') {
echo '<td width="150px" align="middle" rowspan="' . $devices[$u]['usize'] . '">' . $devices[$u]['devicename'] . '</td>';
}
} else {
echo '<td width="150px" align="middle">empty</td>';
}
echo "</tr>";
}
So, as it can be seen - the first method above that simply repeats the device for each U
it spans is much simpler. However, the second method will present a more user-friendly display. It's your preference to which method you want to use and which one you think will be more maintainable in the future.
UPDATE (code-fix & multi-direction spanning)
I didn't realize that your table was being built in descending-order so I had the ustartlocation
as the "top location" which caused an erroneous row/cell shift. I've fixed the code above to properly set a "top location" based on the ustartlocation
and usize
for each device that will fix that issue.
Alternatively, as direction may or may not be important, I've customized the $devices
-populating loop (below) to support creating a row-span that goes either upwards or downwards, completely depending on the flag you specify. The only code you'll need to change (if you already have the customized display-loop from above) would be the while
loop that populates $devices
:
$spanDevicesUpwards = true;
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result_devices)) {
if ($row['usize'] == 1) {
$devices[$row['ustartlocation']] = $row;
} else {
$topLocation = ($spanDevicesUpwards ? ($row['ustartlocation'] + $row['usize'] - 1) : $row['ustartlocation']);
$bottomLocation = ($spanDevicesUpwards ? $row['ustartlocation'] : ($row['ustartlocation'] - $row['usize'] + 1));
$devices[$topLocation] = $row;
for ($location = ($topLocation - 1); $location >= $bottomLocation; $location--) {
$devices[$location] = 'placeholder';
}
}
}
This new block of code will, if the usize
spans more than 1, determine the "top cell" and "bottom cell" for the current device. If you're spanning upwards, the top-cell is ustartlocation + usize - 1
; if you're spanning downwards, it's simply ustartlocation
. The bottom-location is also determined in this manner.