How to convert array to list without .= in PHP?

Question

I have the following array outputs.

Array
(
    [day] => 17
    [eventContent] => event 1 of 17th
    [eventTitle] => 17th event 1
)

Array
(
    [day] => 19
    [eventContent] => event 1 of 19th
    [eventTitle] => 19th event 1
)

Array
(
    [day] => 05
    [eventContent] => event 1 of 5th
    [eventTitle] => 5th event 1
)

Array
(
    [day] => 17
    [eventContent] => event 2 of 17th
    [eventTitle] => 17th event 2
)

Array
(
    [day] => 19
    [eventContent] => event 2 of 19th
    [eventTitle] => 19th event 2
)

Array
(
    [day] => 19
    [eventContent] => event 3 of 19th
    [eventTitle] => 19th event 3
)
...
...

Now I want to make it like the followings.

For example for 19th

<li>
<span class="title">19th event 1</span>
<span class="desc">event 1 of 19th</span>
</li>
<li>
<span class="title">19th event 2</span>
<span class="desc">event 2 of 19th</span>
</li>
<li> 
<span class="title">19th event 3</span>
<span class="desc">event 3 of 19th</span>
</li>

I tried the following. It works fine in PHP but not in Codeigniter. So I am hoping someone can tell me another way to do with out .=

Thanks in advance.

$events[intval($row_event->day)] .= '<li><span class="title">'
.stripslashes($row_event->eventTitle).
'</span><span class="desc">'.stripslashes($row_event->eventContent).
'</span></li>';

And the following is the details of the model.

$events = array();

//query the database for events between the first date of the month and the last of date of month
// $result = mysql_query("SELECT DATE_FORMAT(eventDate,'%d') AS day,eventContent,eventTitle FROM eventcal WHERE eventDate BETWEEN  '$current_year/$current_month/01' AND '$current_year/$current_month/$total_days_of_current_month'");

$query = $this->db->query("SELECT DATE_FORMAT(eventDate,'%d') AS day,eventContent,eventTitle FROM eventcal WHERE eventDate BETWEEN  '$current_year/$current_month/01' AND '$current_year/$current_month/$total_days_of_current_month'");
foreach ($query->result_array() as $row_event)
{

$events[intval($row_event['day'])] .= '<li><span class="title">'
.stripslashes($row_event['eventTitle']).'</span><span class="desc">'
.stripslashes($row_event['eventContent']).'</span></li>';
...
...

--UPDATE--

Controller

Code here

View

Code here

Errors

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Notice

Message: Undefined offset: 17

Filename: models/mcalendar_one.php

Line Number: 38

Array
(
    [day] => 17
    [eventContent] => event 1 of 17th
    [eventTitle] => 17th event 1
)

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Notice

Message: Undefined offset: 19

Filename: models/mcalendar_one.php

Line Number: 38

Array
(
    [day] => 19
    [eventContent] => event 1 of 19th
    [eventTitle] => 19th event 1
)
...
...

Answer 1

The array offset does not exist at this point. So the very first time you assign, do not append by using a .. After this first assignment, the index exists, and using a . is OK.

$events[intval($row_event['day'])] = '<li><span class="title">'

Notice = instead of .=

So to give an example:

$myArray = array();
echo $myArray[0]; // Undefined offset

is wrong as the 0th index does not exist.

Similarly, $myArray[0] .= "something"; is wrong because if we expand the .= out, it becomes:

$myArray[0] = $myArray[0] . "something"; // see the problem?

That should take care of the Notice you're seeing, but you should use Scott's solution instead of printing out HTML code inside a PHP string as thats just a very bad practice, that we all realize sooner or later.

Answer 2

This can simplified quite a bit. First, look at Active Record in CI's database class, it will make your DB calls 100% easier.

Why can't you pass the array back to the view and inject it there?

Your view may look like

<?php foreach ($row_event as $event) : ?>
  <li>
  <span class="title"><?php echo $event->eventTitle; ?></span>
  <span class="desc"><?php echo $event->eventContent; ?></span>
  </li>
<?php endforeach; ?>

That will loop through your array of event details and make your list.

Answer 3

Pleaser NEVER create html in your model, thats an abuse of the MVC pattern. And dont concat strings to do that. Write yourself a view, in plain html which (in some places) echos values using php, just as Scott described.