How to write this loop prettier?

Answer 1

Personally I would keep the HTML section for printing out values only, not doing database connections, calling functions, and so on. Something like this:

<?php
$rows = array();
while ($row= mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC))
{
    $row['cquote_hi'] = highlightWords(htmlspecialchars($row['cQuotes']), $search_result);
    $rows[] = $row;
}
?>

<table class="result">
    <?php foreach ( $rows as $row ) : ?>
    <tr>
    <td style="text-align:right; font-size:15px;"><?php h($row['cArabic']); ?></td>
    <td style="font-size:16px;"><?php echo $row['cquote_hi']; ?></td>
    <td style="font-size:12px;"><?php h($row['vAuthor']); ?></td>
    <td style="font-size:12px; font-style:italic; text-align:right;"><?php h($row['vReference']); ?></td>
    </tr>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
</table>

If your server setup allows it, you can echo variables with short tags: <?=$row['cquote_hi']?>

I don't know what the h() function is doing but you could perhaps call it for each variable in the original while loop, then just echo the variables.

Answer 2

UPDATED

if you really want separate your HTML from your PHP code IMHO you need to do like this:

  // first, separate the msql_query and put it into a function
  // this will give you always an array for easy access every time you need it!

    function getAthors() {
    $rows = array();
    while ( $row = mysql_fetch_array( $result , MYSQL_ASSOC ) ) {
    extract($row);
    $cQuote = highlightWords(htmlspecialchars($cQuotes), $search_result);
    array_push( $rows ,  h($cArabic) , $cQuote , h($vAuthor) , h($vReference) );
    } return $rows; }     

  // use printf for Output a formatted string - built it in a function that 
  // support array like this...
    function genAuthorTbl($format, $arr) { 
    return call_user_func_array('printf', array_merge((array)$format, $arr)); 
    }     

---

  // now in your HTML simply call the two function...       
<?php genAuthorTbl('
     <table>  
      <tr>
       <td>%s</td>
        <td>%s</td>
         <td>%s</td>
        <td>%s</td>  
       </tr>
    </table>', getAthors() ); ?>

Answer 3

This would be my way:

<?

echo '<table class="result">';

while ($row= mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {

    $cQuote =  highlightWords(htmlspecialchars($row['cQuotes']), $search_result);

    echo '
    <tr>
        <td style="text-align:right; font-size:15px;">'.h($row["cArabic"]).'</td>
        <td style="font-size:16px;">'.$cQuote.'</td>
        <td style="font-size:12px;">'.h($row["vAuthor"]).'</td>
        <td style="font-size:12px; font-style:italic; text-align:right;">'.h($row["vReference"]).'</td>
    </tr>';
}

echo '</table>';

?>

All php...