Stumped in the middle of a PHP loop

Question

Here's what I've got so far-

$awards_sql_1 = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM categories WHERE section_id = 1') or die(mysql_error());
$awards_sql_2 = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM categories WHERE section_id = 2') or die(mysql_error());
$awards_sql_3 = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM categories WHERE section_id = 3') or die(mysql_error());
$awards_sql_4 = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM categories WHERE section_id = 4') or die(mysql_error());

$loop = 1;

while($row_sections = mysql_fetch_array($sections_query)) {
    $category = 1;
    echo "<h3>" . $row_sections['section_name'] . " (Loop# $loop)</h3>";

    while($categories = mysql_fetch_array(${"awards_sql_{$loop}"})) {
        ${"winners_sql_{$loop}"} = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM 2009_RKR_bestof WHERE section = $loop && category = $category ORDER BY result_level ASC") or die(mysql_error());
        echo "<h4><strong>{$categories['category_name']}</strong></h4>";
        echo "<ul class=\"winners\">";
>>          while($winners = mysql_fetch_array(${"winners_sql_{$loop}"})) {
                switch ($winners['result_level']) {
                    case 1: $result_level = "Platinum"; break;
                    case 2: $result_level = "Gold"; break;
                    case 3: $result_level = "Silver"; break;
                }
                if (isset($winners['url'])) { $anchor = "<a href=\"http://{$winners['url']}\" target=\"_blank\">"; $close = "</a>"; }
                echo "<li>$anchor{$winners['winner']}$close ($result_level)</li>";

                unset($anchor);
                unset($close);
            }
        echo "</ul>";
        $category++;
    }
    $loop++;
}

Where I'm getting stumped, is I'm getting this thing to loop through correctly, my loop counter ($loop) is working, but when it gets time to spit out the actual reward recipients after the first loop through winners, it's only producing the category titles, the list-items are not getting looped out.

I added a little pointer to where I think the problem begins or centers around (>>).

My guess is I need to maybe unset a var somewhere, but I don't know, I can't see it.

Answer 1

I'm with KM - you're displaying a single page and with your loops, you've got a LOT of queries happening at once - what if 1,000 people hit that page at the same time? ouch...

Maybe consider a larger query (with some repeated data) and loop through it once?

For example:

SELECT 
  section_name, 
  category_name,
  result_level,
  url,
  winner
FROM 2009_RKR_bestof
INNER JOIN categories ON 2009_RKR_bestof.category = categories.id
INNER JOIN sections ON 2009_RKR_bestof.section = sections.id
ORDER BY section_name,category_name ASC

In your loop, you can do checks to determine if you're in a new section (category/whatever):

//pseudo-code
$current_section = "";
while($stuff = mysql_fetch_array($sql))
{
  if ($current_section == "")
  {
    $current_section = $stuff["section_name"];
  }
  if ($current_section == $stuff["section_name"])
  {
    //keep going in your loop
  }
  else
  {
    //we've gotten to a new section - so close your html and start a new section
  }
}

You get the idea..

Answer 2

My guess would be that it is a data problem. It isn't having trouble reading the titles, only the winners. If it iterated once, I would check the data, and ensure that winners_sql_2 - winnders_sql_4 are getting actual data. Perhaps add an echo winners_sql_2 line, to output the contents of the query, and ensure the query is framed correctly.