Pagination - Removing a large space between bottom of rows and pagination links

Question

Hello,

The pagination below works well. It splits a table into 25 rows per page. However, when I click on a page besides page one, there is a large space between the bottom of the 25 rows and the pagination links. I think the problem is related to the CSS. How can I get rid of this large space?

Thanks in advance,

John

/******  build the pagination links ******/  
// range of num links to show    

// if not on page 1, don't show back links  
if ($currentpage > 1) {  
   // show << link to go back to page 1  
   echo " <div class='pages'><div class='pages'><a href='{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?currentpage=1&find={$_SESSION['find']}&searching=yes&search=search' class='links'><<</a></div> ";  
   // get previous page num  
   $prevpage = $currentpage - 1;  
   // show < link to go back to 1 page  
   echo " <div class='pages'><a href='{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?currentpage=$prevpage&find={$_SESSION['find']}&searching=yes&search=search' class='links'><</a></div> ";  
} // end if   

// loop to show links to range of pages around current page  
for ($x = ($currentpage - $range); $x < (($currentpage + $range) + 1); $x++) {  
   // if it's a valid page number...  
   if (($x > 0) && ($x <= $totalpages)) {  
      // if we're on current page...  
      if ($x == $currentpage) {  
         // 'highlight' it but don't make a link  
         echo " <div class='pages'>[<b>$x</b>] </div>";  
      // if not current page...  
      } else {  
         // make it a link  
     echo " <div class='pages'><a href='{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?currentpage=$x&find={$_SESSION['find']}&searching=yes&search=search' class='links'>$x</a></div> ";  
      } // end else  
   } // end if   
} // end for  

// if not on last page, show forward and last page links      
if ($currentpage != $totalpages) {   
   // get next page  
   $nextpage = $currentpage + 1;  
    // echo forward link for next page   
   echo " <div class='pages'><a href='{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?currentpage=$nextpage&find={$_SESSION['find']}&searching=yes&search=search' class='links'>></a></div> ";  
   // echo forward link for lastpage  
   echo " <div class='pages'><a href='{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?currentpage=$totalpages&find={$_SESSION['find']}&searching=yes&search=search' class='links'>>></a></div> ";  
} // end if  
/****** end build pagination links ******/

In case it's helpful, here is how the pagination links's generated HTML looks:

</table> 
 <div class='pages'><div class='pages'><a href='/booksearch.php?currentpage=1&find=best book ever&searching=yes&search=search' class='links'><<</a></div>  <div class='pages'><a href='/booksearch.php?currentpage=1&find=best book ever&searching=yes&search=search' class='links'><</a></div>  <div class='pages'><a href='/booksearch.php?currentpage=1&find=best book ever&searching=yes&search=search' class='links'>1</a></div>  <div class='pages'>[<b>2</b>] </div> <div class='pages'><a href='/booksearch.php?currentpage=3&find=best book ever&searching=yes&search=search' class='links'>3</a></div>  <div class='pages'><a href='/booksearch.php?currentpage=4&find=best book ever&searching=yes&search=search' class='links'>4</a></div>  <div class='pages'><a href='/booksearch.php?currentpage=5&find=best book ever&searching=yes&search=search' class='links'>5</a></div>  <div class='pages'><a href='/booksearch.php?currentpage=3&find=best book ever&searching=yes&search=search' class='links'>></a></div>  <div class='pages'><a href='/booksearch.php?currentpage=7&find=best book ever&searching=yes&search=search' class='links'>>></a></div>

The relevant CSS:

.pages
    {
    overflow: hidden;
    display: block;
    float: left;
    margin: 4px;
    margin-top: 940px;
    margin-left: 10px;
    font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif ;
    }    

 a.links:link {
    color: #000000; text-decoration: none;
    text-align:center;
    margin-left:8px;
    margin-bottom:0px;
    padding:2px;
    font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
    font-size: 16px;
    }

 a.links:visited {
    color: #000000; text-decoration: none;
    text-align:center;
    margin-left:8px;
    margin-bottom:0px;
    padding:2px;
    font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
    font-size: 16px;
    }

 a.links:active {
    color: #000000; text-decoration: none; 
    text-align:center;
    margin-left:8px;
    margin-bottom:0px;
    padding:2px;
    font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
    font-size: 16px;
    }

 a.links:hover {
    color: #000000; text-decoration: none; 
    background-color: #FFFF00;
    text-align:center;
    margin-left:8px;
    margin-bottom:0px;
    padding:2px;
    font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
    font-size: 16px;
    }

Answer 1

You must change "<<<" and ">>>" to the proper html entities: "&lt;&lt;&lt;" and "&gt;&gt;&gt;". Your HTML is broken.

For instance, this line:

echo " <div class='pages'><a href='{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?currentpage=$totalpages&find={$_SESSION['find']}&searching=yes&search=search' class='links'>>></a></div> ";

Should be:

echo " <div class='pages><a href='{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?currentpage=$totalpages&amp;find={$_SESSION['find']}&amp;searching=yes&amp;search=search' class='links'>&gt;&gt;</a></div> ";

The bad HTML is almost certainly causing the unexpected display. You can't test potential spacing issues until you have properly formed markup.

Answer 2

I see this in your pagination example:

<div class='pages'>
 <div class='pages'><a href='/booksearch[/snip]

but I don't see in your code anywhere for a "<div class='pages'>" to be by itself??