Cleaner way of using modulus for columns

Question

I currently have a list (<ul>) of people that I have divided up into two columns. But after finishing the code for it I keept wondering if there is a more effective or clean way to do the same thing.

echo "<table class='area_list'><tr>";
// Loop users within areas, divided up in 2 columns
$count = count($areaArray);
for($i=0 ; $i<$count ; $i++) {
  $uid = $areaArray[$i];
  // get the modulus value + ceil for uneven numbers
  $rowCalc = ($i+1) % ceil($count/2);

  if ($rowCalc == 1) echo "<td><ul>";

  // OUTPUT the actual list item
  echo "<li>{$users[$uid]->profile_lastname}</li>";

  if ($rowCalc == 0 && $i!=0) echo "</ul></td>";
}
echo "</tr></table>";

Any ideas of how to make this cleaner or do it in another way?

Answer 1

You can just loop twice, once for each column. Start at 0 in the first column and at 1 in the second. Increment by two.

Edit: To make it even nicer, put the columns themselves in a loop:

$cols = 3;

echo '<table><tr>';

// column loop
for ($c = 1; $c <= $cols; $c++) {
  echo '<td><ul>';

  // item loop
  for ($i = 0; $i < count($areaArray); $i += $c) {
     echo '<li>...</li>';
  }

  echo '</ul></td>';
}

echo '</tr></table>';

Answer 2

Dont know whether this is what @llia meant, but what about have the for loops like this:

//declare how many columns are needed
$cols=2;

//iterate over each row of entries (down the column)
for ($i=0;i<$count;i+=cols){ 

     echo "<td><ul>";

     //entry loop (across the row)
     for($j=0;j<$cols;j++){ 

           //whose line is it anyway?
           $uid = $areaArray[$i+$j];

           echo "<li>{$users[$uid]->profile_lastname}</li>";
     }
     //end entry loop

     echo "</ul></td>";
}
//end row loop

that way, you can set however many columns you like.

Forgive me if I missed something as I'm waiting for the kettle to boil to get my much needed caffine!

Answer 3

This should do what you want. I pretty much just combined the other two answers so +1 for everyone.

$cols=3;
$user_count = count($users);

echo "<table class='area_list'><tr>";

// Column loop
for($i=0;$i<$cols;$i++){
    echo "<td><ul>";

    // user loop
    for($j=$i;$j<$user_count;$j+=$cols){
        echo "<li>{$users[$j]->profile_lastname}</li>";
    }
    echo "</ul></td>";
}
echo "</tr></table>";

Answer 4

$cols = 3;
$chunkSize = ceil(count($areaArray) / $cols);
echo $chunkSize * $cols;
foreach (array_chunk($areaArray, $chunkSize) as $items) : ?>
 <td>
  <ul>
<?php foreach ($items as $item) : ?>
   <li><?php echo $item ?></li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
  </ul>
 </td>
<?php endforeach; ?>