First 3 In While Loop

[Inersha]

I'm populating a HTML table after retrieving data from a mysql table. In this html table that will end up being about 10 or so rows long, I would like the first 3 rows to have a bronze, silver and gold background color.

This will be done by giving the first 3 rows that are printed from this loop a specific CSS class, while the remaining rows in the table will be given no class.

Here is the PHP at the moment:

PHP Code:

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table") or die(mysql_error());

while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {

// Echo out the table

echo '<tr>';
echo '<td>Stuff</td>';
echo '<td>Stuff</td>';
echo '</tr>';

} 


However, all the table rows will be exactly the same. I would like for this to happen to the rows in succession from the start:

First loop: <tr class="1">
Second loop: <tr class="2">
Third loop: <tr class="3">
Fourth loop: <tr>
Fifth loop: <tr>
etc...

I've been messing with if statements in and out of the while loop to no avail. I know that there must be a fairly straightforward solution but I just can't figure it out. Can anyone help?

[Keleth]

PHP Code:

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table") or die(mysql_error());

$count = 1;
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {

// Echo out the table

echo '<tr'.(($count <= 3)?' class="'.$count.'"':'').'>';
echo '<td>Stuff</td>';
echo '<td>Stuff</td>';
echo '</tr>';
$count++

} 


[Inersha]

Thankyou. That's the ternary operator right?

Just so I can get my head around it, could you show me how the code could work by using if-else statments (if that's possible)?

[Keleth]

PHP Code:

echo '<tr'.(($count <= 3)?' class="'.$count.'"':'').'>'; 


is the same as

PHP Code:

echo '<tr';
if ($count <= 3) echo ' class="'.$count.'"'
echo '>'; 


The else would be to display nothing, so its not necessary.

It formats as

PHP Code:

(conditional)?if true:else 


[Beagle]

Call me crazy, but I would actually avoid using conditionals because the comparison has to be run each time. Instead, I would simply add a class to every row, and only define the first 3.

[Keleth]

Hm... that's actually a pretty good method I didn't think of... assign an incremental class and define 3 of them. Or just an incremental ID. But I guess if you do or don't use a conditional (for the fact its checked each time) depends on the number of rows.

[mlseim]

I would alter the query itself, to reduce the number of rows ...

You have this:
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table") or die(mysql_error());
So basically, your result is the entire database table (all rows).

If you can pick a column to narrow it down, you might be able to end-up with the rows you wish to display.

Example (making up my own column/variable names) ...
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table WHERE win='Y' ORDER by id DESC") or die(mysql_error());




.