PHP Forum

**abhi** · 02:29 AM

Hi,
I have a 2 tables: category, subCategory
Can anyone explained me how to create a menu like a tree menu except there won't be any collapsible feature.
for example

Food(category)
meat(sub)
fruits(sub)
vegetables(sub)

Furniture(category)
chair(sub)
tables(sub)
bed(sub)

as you see, I want to display the category and under the category, I want to display the sub. I am using a database for that so that I can put other items without going through the code.
I tried a lot but couldn't do it. Any help will be grateful. Thanks a lot

**rogem002** · 11:15 AM

A deep Array would be the best way, for example.

PHP Code:


			
<?php
// Set the array
$catgorys[0][title] = "Food";
    $catgorys[0][sub][0] = "meat";
    $catgorys[0][sub][1] = "fruits";
$catgorys[1][title] = "Furniture";
    $catgorys[1][sub][0] = "chair";
    $catgorys[1][sub][0] = "tables";

// Now if you want to see them:
foreach($catgorys as $keys => $value){
    echo  $value[title]."\n";
        foreach($value[sub] as $key => $vale){
            echo "\t".$vale."\n";
        }
    echo "\n"."\n";
}  
?>

The above would produce:

Code:

Food
	meat
	fruits

Furniture
	tables

So if you want to pull the above from a database, you just need a similar structure.

**Arenlor** · 06-12-2008, 02:29 PM

Alright, using generic names 'cat' and 'sub' for the columns.

PHP Code:


			
<html><head><title>Title</title></head><body>
<?php $cat="Food";
$query = "SELECT * FROM `table` where cat=$cat";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$cat_arr = mysql_fetch_array($result);
echo "<p>".$cat."</p>";?>
<ul>
<?php foreach($cat_arr as $value){
echo "<li>".$value."</li>";}?>
</ul></body></html>

**Hockey** · 06-15-2008, 04:39 PM

First OP I would drop the category/subcategory and just go with a single array and associate each element with a parent via a parent ID.

Storing your data in a database for instance you schema might look like:

categories:
pkid, parent, name

The data would resemble something like:

1, 0, Food
2, 1, Meat
3, 1, Cheese
4, 1, Potatoes

The second field (parent ID) is what you use to relate categories with each other, so a ZERO value would indicate that the element is a root item and has no parent.

Food
Meat
Cheese
Potatoes

Your depth is now arbitrary, you just need to update relation ID's