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Table Generator

Table Generator

In this tutorial I will show you how you can make a pretty cool html table generator, so that you can show off your excel files, since Excel outputs pretty messy HTML.

Here is the code and the explanation follows.

<?php
$file = "text.txt";
$delimiter = ",";
$column = array("Name", "Lastname", "Favorite Transport");

@$fp = fopen($file, "r") or die("Could not open file for reading");
while (!feof($fp))
	{
    $tmpstr = fgets($fp, 100);
    $line[] = ereg_replace("\r\n", "", $tmpstr);
	}
for ($i=0; $i < count($line); $i++)
	{
    $line[$i] = split($delimiter, $line[$i]);
	}
?>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Albert's Delimited Text to HTML Table Converter</title>
    <style type="text/css">
        table, body { border-collapse: collapse; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10px; }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
    <tr>
<?php
        for ($i=0; $i<count($column); $i++)
            echo "<th>".$column[$i]."</th>";
?>
    </tr>
<?php
for ($i=0; $i < count($line); $i++)
{
    echo "<tr>";
    for ($j=0; $j < count($line[$i]); $j++)
    {
        echo "<td>".$line[$i][$j]."</td>";
    }
    echo "</tr>";
}
fclose($fp);
?>
</table>
</body>
</html>

<?php
$file = "text.txt";

Name of the text file containing the delimited text entries

$delimiter = ",";

The type of delimiter used, some files may use ; or other special characters that won't be used in normal text

$column = array("Name", "Lastname", "Favorite Transport");

Create an array of the column names.

@$fp = fopen($file, "r") or die("Could not open file for reading");

Added the @ to the start of the line so that it doesnt show the standard php error, but my custom error. Opens the file in read mode

while (!feof($fp))
	{

While the file pointer is not at the end of the file, it gets one line from the file and moves the filepointer down one line

    $tmpstr = fgets($fp, 100);
    $line[] = ereg_replace("\r\n", "", $tmpstr);
	}

Strip out all whitespace in the file, NOTE: this is dependant on the operating system you are using! EG: Unix based systems use \n only

for ($i=0; $i < count($line); $i++)
	{
    $line[$i] = split($delimiter, $line[$i]);
	}

Splits each line into an array with all the text between the commas. Creates a 2-d array of the lines, so each line will now consist of all the columns, so cell A1 will be $line[0][0]

?>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Albert's Delimited Text to HTML Table Converter</title>
    <style type="text/css">
        table, body { border-collapse: collapse; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10px; }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
    <tr>

This is setting up the HMTL file that we are going to create in the next step.

<?php
        for ($i=0; $i<count($column); $i++)
            echo "<th>".$column[$i]."</th>";
?>
    </tr>

We use a 'for' loop which displays the column titles, using the th tag you get bold and centered cells without having to use extra tags

<?php
for ($i=0; $i < count($line); $i++)
{
    echo "<tr>";
    for ($j=0; $j < count($line[$i]); $j++)
    {
        echo "<td>".$line[$i][$j]."</td>";
    }
    echo "</tr>";
}

The above loops will display on a row, all the columns of data in that row, so it will display A1, B1, C1 etc. then start a new row and do the same until there are now lines left to be displayed

<?php
fclose($fp);
?>

Always remember to close the file you worked on, its almost like a file on your desk, if you never close the file and put it away, after a while you end up with 100's of papers and files all mixed up :)

</table>
</body>
</html>

Finally we close the table and end the HMTL document.

Now you should understand how to make an html table generator with the power of PHP. A special thanks to Albert Gouws for writing and submitting this tutorial to scriptplayground.

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Comments: Table Generator

dev Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:14 pm

$line[$i] = split($delimiter, $line[$i]); // doesn't work for my set up
$line[$i] = explode($delimiter, $line[$i]); //works!

james Fri Aug 10, 2007 7:50 am

testing

Live TV Tue Aug 21, 2007 12:33 pm

Why not just output as an unordered list and then just style it with css.

Sam Hale Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:59 am

The data I am using includes a delimeter right at the start of each line, which I don't think this code does.

How would I modify the code so it automatically included the data at the start.

mkeefe Fri Jan 25, 2008 1:51 pm

@Sam, Are you saying your text has a "," at the beginning of each line? If so, you could change the delimiter to any other character.

Sam Hale Sat Jan 26, 2008 3:00 pm

Hi there;
Thanks for the super fast reply.
My current output is : http://sam06.tfcph.com/ebay.php
I have changed the delimiter to |#!#|, and the admin of the site says the problem is that the code does not encorporate the
at the start of the line.
Thanks again,
Sam

Sam Hale Sat Jan 26, 2008 3:02 pm

Sorry - it didn't show it right

"does not encorporate the "
the * is a space.

Sam Hale Sat Jan 26, 2008 3:03 pm

Didn't show it again!
"Does not encorporate the *<*b*r* /*>*"

mkeefe Sat Jan 26, 2008 5:03 pm

No problem, btw, you can avoid code being run by using the HTML character codes (for now). In the new version which I am working on you will be able to properly format and display code without it being run.

Sam Hale Sat Jan 26, 2008 5:48 pm

Hi, thanks.
Unfortunetly I'm having trouble adding the *<*b*r*/*>* to appear at the start of each line- do ou know how?

Kind Regards,
Sam

mkeefe Sat Jan 26, 2008 6:04 pm

I am not 100% sure where you want to add the break in the code, but if it is on the line, this looks like the correct place.

for ($j=0; $j < count($line[$i]); $j++)
{
echo "<td><br />".$line[$i][$j]."</td>";
}

Sam Hale Sat Jan 26, 2008 7:05 pm

Hi there,
Unfortunetly I cannot get it to work, but I really appreciate your help.

The source of data is like this:

|#!#|220194007831|#!#|1201445897|#!#|1.83|#!#|N|#!#||#!#|EYE TOY - SEGA SUPERSTARS - PS2 (GAME ONLY) NO RESERVE!|#!#|1|#!#|1|#!#|8|#!#|
|#!#|200193755444|#!#|1201449663|#!#|2.34|#!#|N|#!#||#!#|PS2 - Sega Superstars game|#!#|1|#!#|1|#!#|6|#!#|
|#!#|160200810105|#!#|1201450855|#!#|2.34|#!#|N|#!#||#!#|sega superstars ps2|#!#|1|#!#|1|#!#|6|#!#|
|#!#|120214964407|#!#|1201466327|#!#|3.34|#!#|N|#!#||#!#|PS2 GAME EYETOY KINETIC|#!#|2|#!#|1|#!#|6|#!#|
|#!#|120214965407|#!#|1201466435|#!#|3.34|#!#|N|#!#||#!#|PS2 GAME EYETOY GROOVE|#!#|2|#!#|1|#!#|6|#!#|
|#!#|120214966376|#!#|1201466532|#!#|3.34|#!#|N|#!#||#!#|PS2 GAME EYETOY PLAY 3|#!#|2|#!#|1|#!#|6|#!#|
|#!#|270205879033|#!#|1201616487|#!#|2.83|#!#|N|#!#||#!#|Logitech Webcam with CD|#!#|2|#!#|1|#!#|6|#!#|
|#!#|140201627180|#!#|1202035822|#!#|2.53|#!#|N|#!#||#!#|EyeToy Monkey Mania PlayStation 2|#!#|2|#!#|1|#!#|6|#!#|

Do you know why it's not working?

Kind Regards,
Sam

J.Mihai Mon Mar 17, 2008 9:10 am

Really useful, thanks

11 Mon Jan 19, 2009 12:25 pm

stinks

mkeefe Mon Jan 19, 2009 12:30 pm

@11 - Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but mentioning why you didn't like this tutorial would help the process moving forward.

Thanks,
Matt

forsooth Fri Nov 13, 2009 2:35 pm

Thank you -- very useful!

Ned Sat Aug 6, 2011 12:15 pm

Thank You, Worked Perfect! Exactly what I needed!!

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