help plz: format retrieved Mysql data in HTML with PHP

paulj000 · #1 (**permalink**) 10-19-03, 05:01 AM

I am looking for ways to format information from a mysql database into HTML. For instance if someone enters the following info in text box that will be inserted into a mysql table how do i retrieve it in a nice, formatted <li>fashion</li>.

The following goes into database from a textarea:

feature 1
feature 2
feature 3
feature 4
feature 5
feature 6

then it is retrieved with PHP and desired to be in the <LI> format like this:

<UL>
<LI>feature 1</LI>
<LI>feature 2</LI>
<LI>feature 3</LI>
<LI>feature 4</LI>
<LI>feature 5</LI>
<LI>feature 6</LI>
</UL>

How do I read this sort of data that is all in one "TEXT" entry in a database into HTML?
- thank you very much - Paul

siavash · #2 (**permalink**) 10-19-03, 06:59 AM

you must use some code like this:

<html>
<head><title>List</title></head>
<body>
<form action="<?php echo $PHP_SELF ?>" method="post">
List:<textarea name='text' cols="50" rows="10"></textarea>
<input type="submit" value="Submit!" />
<input type="hidden" name="submited" value="true" />
</form>

<?php
if($submited){
$tmp=explode("\n",$text);
$list='<UL>';
for($i=0;$i<count($tmp);$i++)
$list.="<LI>".$tmp[$i]."</LI>";
$list.='</UL>';
echo $list;
}
?>
</body>
</html>

paulj000 · #3 (**permalink**) 10-19-03, 09:03 PM

So you basically rely on detecting the "\n" at each line of text, turn all of the lines into array elements and then count the elements and run through a loop, echo'ing each element in the <LI> formatting. That makes sense to me.

I was originally thinking along the lines of ereg_replace each "\r" with "</LI><LI>" but I like your way better.

1 - So, is that the basis of formatting all these types of database entries... explode on the "\n"?
2 - Also, what type of column should these go into the mysql database as? TEXT or BLOB?

THanks a bunch for the advice - Paul