PhP table assignment

Question

I am working on an homework assignment, and I am having a hard time with it. Any help is appreciated!

For the Module 2 Exercise, students will write a PHP program named "moduletwo.php" that generates an HTML table with the following requirements:

A function called "makeTable($headerArray, $numRows)" that creates a table with headers as they appear in the array and however many rows are specified.

If a number of rows is not specified, use a default of 5 Even number rows should use the class "dark" Odd number rows should use the class "light" There should be a column that has only the row number Create an array of table headers (these can be whatever you want, but be creative here, and do not just use "Heading 1" or generic term) This function will be used in the body of the HTML document to create an empty table with the array of headers The HTML document should be complete, including DOCTYPE and all necessary elements. Write a CSS file named "moduletwo.css" to go along with this that creates the "dark" and "light" classes with background colors of your choosing, but that must be readable and reflect the "dark" and "light" names. Link to this in the head section of the page."

this is what i have so far:

<?php
function makeTable($headerarray, $numrows)
{
    echo "<table>"; # echo the table begining
    
    
    foreach ($headerarray as $header) { # loop through the erray to print the th tag
        echo "<th>" . $header . "</th>";
    }
    
    foreach ($numRows as $row) { #loop $numrows times to create that number of empty rows
        echo "<tr>";
        echo "<td>";
        
        echo "</td>";
        echo "</tr>";
    }
    
    
    echo "</table>"; # echo table ending; 
    
}
$headers = array(
    "Book Title",
    "Book Author",
    "Publication Date",
    "Book Pages",
    "Finished Book"
);


makeTable($headers, 5); #create a table with 5 empty rows under the header


?>

I'm struggling with creating the rows.

Answer 1

First, I want to say that I do not recommend copying this exactly and using it for your homework. You should read the comments and attempt to understand why it does what it does. I've done my best to comment the code so you can learn it.

Newbie Friendly

//define default `$numrows` in function declaration
function makeTable($headerarray, $numrows = 5) {
    
    //create table beginning
    echo "<table>";
    
    //create first row, which is your header
    //this needs to be done OUTSIDE of the header loop, as there is only 1 set of headers.
    echo "<tr>";
    
    //loop through headers using FOREACH
    foreach($headerarray as $header) {
        //add <th> element for each header
        echo "<th>" . $header . "</th>";
    }
    
    //end table row (header)
    echo "</tr>";
    
    //define ODD class. The first loop is ALWAYS ODD.
    $class = 'light';
    
    //get a count of columns
    $numcolumns = count($headerarray);
    
    //loop a specific number of times (number of rows), using a FOR loop
    for ($row = 1; $row <= $numrows; $row++) {
    
        //create table row inside FIRST FOR LOOP. This creates a row each time.
        //also add `$class` to row.
        echo "<tr class=\"" . $class . "\">";
        
        //loop a specific number of times (number of columns). This creates a column each time.
        for ($column = 1; $column <= $numcolumns; $column++) {
        
            //create a <td> element (cell)
            echo "<td>";
            
            
            if($column == 1) { //if column is 1
            
                //use row number as cell content
                echo "Row " . $row;
                
            } else { //if column IS NOT 1
            
                //use column number as content
                echo "Column " . $column; #show column number as content
                
            }
            
            //end <td> element (cell)
            echo "</td>"; #end row
        }
        
        //end table row
        echo "</tr>";
        
        //AT THE END OF ROW LOOP, switch `$class` to 'dark' if it is currently 'light'
        //or switch it to 'light' if it is currently 'dark'
        //since this is at the end of the row loop, it takes effect on the next loop. That means it should alternate between the 2
        /***
            This solution has several benefits. First, you don't need to know if the current row is even or odd.
            second, you could use this to check if the row is even/odd IF YOU NEED TO
            (if `$class` is 'light', you know the row is ODD)
        **/
        if($class == 'light') {
            $class = 'dark';
        } else {
            $class = 'light';
        }
        
    }
    
    //end table
    echo "</table>";
  
}

Which results in this HTML using your example data.

<table>
    <tr>
        <th>Book Title</th>
        <th>Book Author</th>
        <th>Publication Date</th>
        <th>Book Pages</th>
        <th>Finished Book</th>
    </tr>
    <tr class="light"><td>Row 1</td>
        <td>Column 2</td>
        <td>Column 3</td>
        <td>Column 4</td>
        <td>Column 5</td>
    </tr>
    <tr class="dark"><td>Row 2</td>
        <td>Column 2</td>
        <td>Column 3</td>
        <td>Column 4</td>
        <td>Column 5</td>
    </tr>
    <tr class="light"><td>Row 3</td>
        <td>Column 2</td>
        <td>Column 3</td>
        <td>Column 4</td>
        <td>Column 5</td>
    </tr>
    <tr class="dark"><td>Row 4</td>
        <td>Column 2</td>
        <td>Column 3</td>
        <td>Column 4</td>
        <td>Column 5</td>
    </tr>
    <tr class="light"><td>Row 5</td>
        <td>Column 2</td>
        <td>Column 3</td>
        <td>Column 4</td>
        <td>Column 5</td>
    </tr>
</table>

The CSS part is pretty simple, you just need to define a dark and light rule.

tr.light {
    background-color: LIGHT_COLOR;
}
tr.dark {
    background-color: DARK_COLOR;
}

---

A more advanced approach

If I had to do this, I'd probably do something like this:

function makeTable($headerarray, $numrows = 5) {
    
    $headers = "";
    foreach($headerarray as $head) {
        $headers .= "<th>{$head}</th>";
    }
    
    $body = "";
    $numcolumns = count($headerarray);
    for ($row = 1; $row <= $numrows; $row++) {
        $tmp = "<tr>";
        for ($col = 1; $col <= $numcolumns; $col++) {
            $content = $col == 1 ? "Row {$row}" : "Column {$col}";
            $tmp .= "<td>{$content}</td>";
        }
        $body .= $tmp . "</tr>";
    }
    
    $html = "
        <table>
            <thead>
                <tr>
                    {$headers}
                </tr>
            </thead>
            <tbody>
                {$body}
            </tbody>
        </table>
    ";
    
    return $html;
}

This function returns the table instead of directly echoing it. This allows you to do more stuff with the HTML at the very end if you need to. You would use this function like this:

$headers = array(
    "Book Title",
    "Book Author",
    "Publication Date",
    "Book Pages",
    "Finished Book"
);


echo makeTable($headers, 5);

I also completely removed the classes from the rows, because it's easier to do with CSS alone, which will react better to rows being removed by javascript or whatever. It can be applied like this:

tbody > tr:nth-child(even) {
    background-color: DARK_COLOR;
}
tbody > tr:nth-child(odd) {
    background-color: LIGHT_COLOR;
}