need to print 5 column list in alpha order, vertically

Question

Have a webpage that will be viewed by mainly IE users, so CSS3 is out of the question.

I want it to list like:

A  D  G
B  E  H
C  F  I

Here is the function that currently lists like:

A B C
D E F
G H I

function listPhoneExtensions($group,$group_title) {
  $adldap = new adLDAP();
  $group_membership = $adldap->group_members(strtoupper($group),FALSE);

    sort($group_membership);
    print "
    <a name=\"".strtolower($group_title)."\"></a>
    <h2>".$group_title."</h2>
    <ul class=\"phone-extensions\">";
  foreach ($group_membership as $i => $username) {
      $userinfo = $adldap->user_info($username, array("givenname","sn","telephonenumber"));
      $displayname = "<span class=\"name\">".substr($userinfo[0]["sn"][0],0,9).", ".substr($userinfo[0]["givenname"][0],0,9)."</span><span class=\"ext\">".$userinfo[0]["telephonenumber"][0]."</span>";
      if($userinfo[0]["sn"][0] != "" && $userinfo[0]["givenname"][0] != "" && $userinfo[0]["telephonenumber"][0] != "") {
        print "<li>".$displayname."</li>";
      }
    }
    print "</ul><p class=\"clear-both\"><a href=\"#top\" class=\"link-to-top\">&uarr; top</a></p>";
}

Example rendered html:

<ul class="phone-extensions">
<li><span class="name">Barry Bonds</span><span class="ext">8281</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Gerald Clark</span><span class="ext">8211</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Juan Dixon</span><span class="ext">8282</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Omar Ebbs</span><span class="ext">8252</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Freddie Flank</span><span class="ext">2281</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Jerry Gilmore</span><span class="ext">4231</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Kim Moore</span><span class="ext">5767</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Barry Bonds</span><span class="ext">8281</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Gerald Clark</span><span class="ext">8211</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Juan Dixon</span><span class="ext">8282</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Omar Ebbs</span><span class="ext">8252</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Freddie Flank</span><span class="ext">2281</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Jerry Gilmore</span><span class="ext">4231</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Kim Moore</span><span class="ext">5767</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Barry Bonds</span><span class="ext">8281</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Gerald Clark</span><span class="ext">8211</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Juan Dixon</span><span class="ext">8282</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Omar Ebbs</span><span class="ext">8252</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Freddie Flank</span><span class="ext">2281</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Jerry Gilmore</span><span class="ext">4231</span></li>
<li><span class="name">Kim Moore</span><span class="ext">5767</span></li>
</ul>

Any help is appreciated to getting it to list alpha vertically.

Answer 1

The title states 5 columns, but your example shows 3. I'll assume 3.

After storing your data in an array, and sorting them, do the following:

For 3 columns, you want position 0,3,6 on the same row. The next row will have increments of 1 of each of those values. So, 1,4,7. The next row will be 2,5,8.

Therefore, you can change your for loop to hold 3 values initially. 0,3,6, and then increment each, and create the next row.

Answer 2

I would load the critical data into an array so you can count them and step through them in whatever order you want. Then use an algorithm like this to get them in the right order:

$items = BuildItemArray(); // Get the values into an array.
$columnCount = 5;
$itemCount = count($items);

$rowCount = ceil($itemCount / $columnCount);
for ($i = 0; $i < $rowCount * $columnCount; $i++)
{
    $index = ($i % $columnCount) * $rowCount + floor($i / $columnCount);
    if ($index < $itemCount)
    {
        DisplayItem($items[$index]);
    }
    else
    {
        DisplayBlank();
    }
}

I think that should work, but I haven't tested it.