PHP - Show results from different queries on one page, either or, not all at the same time

Question

Not sure if that was the best way to phrase what I'm trying to do. Here goes:

I want users to be able to show results form my DB based on three different tables, one at a time.

I have the queries ready, but only want to show one result on the page at a time, based on what the user clicks. The queries are based on 3 different tables. There is a Today table, a This Week table, and a This Month table.

So when a users clicks Today, I want to show the results from the Today table. When they click This Week, I want the results to switch to come from the This Week table. I'm assuming this can be done with a simple if-then logic in PHP..?

Here's how I'm calling from the Today table:

<?php

global $wpdb;
$result = $wpdb->get_results('SELECT name, count FROM wp_celebcount_today');
foreach($result as $row) {
echo '<a href="http://www.celebrything.com/?s=' .
    urlencode($row->name) . '&search=Search">' . $row->name .
    '</a> - ' . $row->count . ' Posts<br/>';}


?>

I would call from the This Week table like so:

<?php

global $wpdb;
$result = $wpdb->get_results('SELECT name, count FROM wp_celebcount_thisweek');
foreach($result as $row) {
echo '<a href="http://www.celebrything.com/?s=' .
    urlencode($row->name) . '&search=Search">' . $row->name .
    '</a> - ' . $row->count . ' Posts<br/>';}


?>

This query is currently running from the page load. How do I insert logic to make it run from a click on "Today", "This Week", or "This Month"?

THANKS ***-----------------------------------------------------

OK - Thanks for the help so far! I have this (I'm a beginner..):

<div id="sidebar">

<div class="post">
<h2>

<font color="#333333">Most Popular Celebrities</font><br>
<font color="#333333">in last 24 hours</font>
<br>
<br>

<a href="page.php?table=today">Today</a>
<a href="page.php?table=week">Week</a>
<a href="page.php?table=month">Month</a>

<?php
if (!in_array($table, array('today', 'week', 'month')) {
  return false;
}

global $wpdb;
$result = $wpdb->get_results('SELECT name, count FROM wp_celebcount_' . $table);
foreach($result as $row) {
echo '<a href="http://www.celebrything.com/?s=' .
    urlencode($row->name) . '&search=Search">' . $row->name .
    '</a> - ' . $row->count . ' Posts<br/>';
}
}



showTable($_GET['table']);
?>

</h2>
</div>

</div>

<div class="clear"></div>

I'm getting this error: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '{' in /home/content/c/e/l/celebrything/html/wp-content/themes/celebrything/sidebar.php on line 16

Answer 1

You can make it based on URL parameters.

The link will look something like this: site.php?type=today.

Then, in your PHP script, you could for example do this:

if (isset($_GET['type']))
{
    switch ($_GET['type'])
    {
        case 'today':
            // Query and list for today
            break;
        case 'thisweek':
            // Query and list for this week
            break;
        case 'thismonth':
        default:
            // Query and list for this month
            break;
    }
}
else
    // Error handling here

EDIT: I made the example be more concrete and used a switch construct, because it allows to mess with the default case more easily.

This is now assuming that when an invalid type is given, the list for this month is displayed. I think that's what you want...

Let me ask you, though: Why exactly do you even have these three tables? Please tell me you're not using some sort of cron-like script to move items from the today table to the this week column and so on... If so, you should just do it in one table, with one date column.

EDIT 2: To fix your example code, though, you need to change the variable name from $table to $_GET['table']. You should also check whether the variable exists at all (by checking with isset($_GET['table'])).

Answer 2

You can make the code into a function, and choose the table via a request param. Like so below. Note I added in_array check to make sure the table is not any table.

<a href="page.php?table=today">Today</a>
<a href="page.php?table=week">Week</a>

PHP

function showTable ($table) {

if (!in_array($table, array('today', 'week', 'month')) {
  return false;
}

global $wpdb;
$result = $wpdb->get_results('SELECT name, count FROM wp_celebcount_' . $table);
foreach($result as $row) {
echo '<a href="http://www.celebrything.com/?s=' .
    urlencode($row->name) . '&search=Search">' . $row->name .
    '</a> - ' . $row->count . ' Posts<br/>';
}
}

Call the function in your page.php

if (empty($_GET['table'])) {
showTable($_GET['table']);

} else { showTable('today'); }