Zebra Tables with PHP & MySQL

[kyleldi]

I'm creating a staff directory that I'd like to use alternating background colors (odd/even) to make it easier to read.  All of the information is stored in sql, which I can pull to the page with a repeat function, but I'm not sure how to get the zebra effect to alternate with the output.  Is there any easy way to do this?  I'm using CSS to change the background of the table itself.

 

<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" class="staff_b">
        <tr>
          <td width="35%"><div class="staff_h">Name</div></td>
          <td width="35%"><div class="staff_h">Department</div></td>
          <td width="30%"><div class="staff_h">Extension</div></td>
        </tr>
        <tr class="staff_e">
          <td>1</td>
          <td>2</td>
          <td>3</td>
        </tr>
        <tr class="staff_o">
          <td>4</td>
          <td>5</td>
          <td>6</td>
        </tr>
      </table>

[Adam]

Yeah it's pretty straight forward. First define a variable you can switch between odd/even (true/false):

 

$alt = 0;

 

Within the loop echo the right class name:

 

<tr class="<?php echo ($alt) ? 'staff_o' : 'staff_e'; ?>">

 

 

Then before you close the loop switch the variable:

 

$alt = ($alt) ? 0 : 1;

[kyleldi]

Thank you for the valuable information!  I put together the code (below), but it seems as though the alternating does not take place.  Instead it just outputs each TR class at

<tr class="staff_e">

 

 

<?php do { ?>
        <?php $alt = 0; ?>
        <tr class="<?php echo ($alt) ? 'staff_o' : 'staff_e'; ?>">
          <td><?php echo ucwords($row_rs_staff['name']); ?></td>
          <td><?php echo $row_rs_staff['dept']; ?></td>
          <td><?php echo $row_rs_staff['ext']; ?></td>
        </tr>
        <?php $alt = ($alt) ? 0 : 1; ?>
        <?php } while ($row_rs_staff = mysql_fetch_assoc($rs_staff)); ?>

[kickstart]

Hi

 

I normally use a line number variable, and then mod it to alternate the table rows class.

 

$LineNo = 0;
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($rs))
{
echo "<tr class='RowClass".(($LineNo++) % 2)."'><td>".$row['SomeVariable']."</td></tr>";
}

 

This way the class will alternate between RowClass0 and RowClass1.

 

All the best

 

Keith

[Adam]

Thank you for the valuable information!  I put together the code (below), but it seems as though the alternating does not take place.  Instead it just outputs each TR class at

<tr class="staff_e">

 

 

<?php do { ?>
        <?php $alt = 0; ?>
        <tr class="<?php echo ($alt) ? 'staff_o' : 'staff_e'; ?>">
          <td><?php echo ucwords($row_rs_staff['name']); ?></td>
          <td><?php echo $row_rs_staff['dept']; ?></td>
          <td><?php echo $row_rs_staff['ext']; ?></td>
        </tr>
        <?php $alt = ($alt) ? 0 : 1; ?>
        <?php } while ($row_rs_staff = mysql_fetch_assoc($rs_staff)); ?>

 

You need to define $alt outside of the loop, otherwise at the start you set it back to the same value every time.