In the code below, particularly at the bottom, where the table output code is, I think the curly brackets are the problem { these } I was changing them last night, and I had the code at a point where I got all the categories displaying on the page, but the columns were not correct. Could someone have a look and see if you fix the problem?

Note: I don't want to change the function code to another way, I want to make it as simple as can be, don't make it harder than it actually is.

Thank you
Brian

PHP Code:

<?php
            /* Include your code to connect to DB. */
            
            include('cats_db.php');

            /* Your DB table name */

            $tbl_name="categories";

            // How many adjacent pages should be shown on each side?
            $adjacents = 1;

            /* 
            First get total number of rows in data table. 
            If you have a WHERE clause in your query, make sure you mirror it here.
            */

            $query = "SELECT COUNT(*) as num FROM $tbl_name";
                $total_pages = mysql_fetch_array(mysql_query($query));
                $total_pages = $total_pages[num];

            /* Setup vars for query. */
            $targetpage = "categories.php";     //your file name  (the name of this file)

            $limit = 2;              //how many items to show per page

            $page = $_GET['page'];
            if($page) 
            $st = ($page - 1) * $limit; //first item to display on this page

            else
            $st = 0;           //if no page var is given, set st to 0
            
             /* Get data. */

            $sql = "SELECT category_name FROM $tbl_name LIMIT $st, $limit";
            $result = mysql_query($sql);

            /* Setup page vars for display. */

            if ($page == 0) $page = 1;                   // if no page var is given, default to 1.
            $prev = $page - 1;                          //  previous page is page - 1
            $next = $page + 1;                         //   next page is page + 1
            $lastpage = ceil($total_pages/$limit);    //    lastpage is = total pages / items per page, rounded up.
            $lpm1 = $lastpage - 1;                   //     last page minus 1

        /*
        Now we apply our rules and draw the pagination object. 
        We're actually saving the code to a variable in case we want to draw it more than once.
        */

        $pagination = "";
        if($lastpage > 1)
        {
        $pagination .= "";

        //previous button

        if ($page > 1) 
        $pagination.= "<a href=\"$targetpage?page=$prev\" class=\"current\"> previous </a>";
        else
        $pagination.= "<span class=\"disabled\"> previous </span>";

        //pages

        if ($lastpage < 7 + ($adjacents * 2))    //not enough pages to bother breaking it up
        {    
        for ($counter = 1; $counter <= $lastpage; $counter++)
        {
        if ($counter == $page)
        $pagination.= "<span class=\"number\">$counter</span>";
        else
        $pagination.= "<a href=\"$targetpage?page=$counter\" class=\"number current\">$counter</a>";                
        }
        }
        elseif($lastpage > 5 + ($adjacents * 2))  //enough pages to hide some
        {

        //close to beginning; only hide later pages

        if($page < 1 + ($adjacents * 2))        
        {
        for ($counter = 1; $counter < 4 + ($adjacents * 2); $counter++)
        {
        if ($counter == $page)
        $pagination.= "<span class=\"number\">$counter </span>";
        else
        $pagination.= "<a href=\"$targetpage?page=$counter\" class=\"number current\">$counter</a>";
                }
        $pagination.= "<span class=\"dots\">...</span>";
        $pagination.= "<a href=\"$targetpage?page=$lpm1\" class=\"number\">$lpm1</a>";
        $pagination.= "<a href=\"$targetpage?page=$lastpage\" class=\"number current\">$lastpage</a>";        
                }

        //in middle; hide some front and some back

        elseif($lastpage - ($adjacents * 2) > $page && $page > ($adjacents * 2))
        {
        $pagination.= "<a href=\"$targetpage?page=1\" class=\"number\">1</a>";
        $pagination.= "<a href=\"$targetpage?page=2\" class=\"number\">2</a>";
        $pagination.= "<span class=\"dots\">...</span>";
        for ($counter = $page - $adjacents; $counter <= $page + $adjacents; $counter++)
        {
        if ($counter == $page)
        $pagination.= "<span class=\"number\">$counter</span>";
        else
        $pagination.= "<a href=\"$targetpage?page=$counter\" class=\"number current\">$counter</ a>";                
        }
        $pagination.= "<span class=\"dots\">...</span>";
        $pagination.= "<a href=\"$targetpage?page=$lpm1\" class=\"number\">$lpm1</a>";
        $pagination.= "<a href=\"$targetpage?page=$lastpage\" class=\"number current\">$lastpage</a>";        
        }

        //close to end; only hide early pages

                else
        {
        $pagination.= "<a href=\"$targetpage?page=1\" class=\"number\">1</a>";
        $pagination.= "<a href=\"$targetpage?page=2\" class=\"number\">2</a>";
        $pagination.= "<span class=\"dots\">...</span>";
        for ($counter = $lastpage - (2 + ($adjacents * 2)); $counter <= $lastpage; $counter++)
        {
        if ($counter == $page)
        $pagination.= "<span class=\"number\">$counter</span>";
        else
        $pagination.= "<a href=\"$targetpage?page=$counter\" class=\"number current\">$counter</a>";
        }
        }
        }
        
        //next button

        if ($page < $counter - 1)
        $pagination.= "<a href=\"$targetpage?page=$next\" class=\"number current\"> next </a>";
        else
        $pagination.= "<span class=\"disabled\"> next </span>";
        $pagination.= "</div>\n";        
            }
// End of Pagination Script //

?>

<!-- Table Output Code -->

<?php

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM categories");

$numCols = 2;
$numPerCol = ceil(mysql_num_rows($result) / $numCols);

echo "<table valign=\"top\"><tr>";

for($col = 1; $col <= $numCols; $col++) {

echo "<td valign=\"top\">";

for($row = 0; $row < $numPerCol; $row++) {

$resultRow = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);

if($resultRow == false) {

break;
}
}
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
echo $row['category_name']; 

echo "</td>";
echo "</tr></table>";
}}
?>

<?=$pagination?>

Seriously, you need to stop making new threads all the time about the same subject.
Also, it seems you need to read up on tables. A table is set up in this manner

<table>
   <tr> <!-- row -->
      <td>A cell in the row</td>
      <td>A cell in the row</td>
      <td>A cell in the row</td>
   </tr> <!-- end of row -->
   <tr> <!-- new row -->
      <td>A cell in the row</td>
      <td>A cell in the row</td>
      <td>A cell in the row</td>
   </tr> <!-- end of row -->
</table>

Tables are always built with rows containing cells, not columns containing rows.

Yes, I am aware of that, what I don't get is in the php code, the curly brackets. I didn't know that by placing the curly brackets in the incorrect place (and not far from there original spot) that caused a couple of major display problems. The first problem was that the while loop / echo part of the code was not echoing all of the rows in db, (skipping the first row) and when I moved the curly brackets around, I managed to get all the categories displayed from the db. I am still having that issue because of changing the code around for another issue which was the table columns. I understand that columns run across the page, while rows run down the page. It's the php part that I can't seem to master. I will continue to pound at the code some more, but if you have the answer, please do post.

Thank you
Brian

Alright, here's an example that I think will work. Took some of your code and added some of my own.

PHP Code:

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM categories");

$numCols = 2;
$numPerCol = ceil(mysql_num_rows($result) / $numCols);

// I'm just gonna put the results into an array, so we can access rows by index
$categories = array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
   $categories[] = $row['category_name'];
}

echo '<table>';
for ($i = 0; $i < $numPerCol; $i++) {
   echo '<tr>'; // new row
   for ($j = 0; $j < $numCols; $j++) {
      $index = ($i * numCols) + $j;
      // if the number of rows is not evenly dividable by $numPerCol,
      // the last row will not be full. Then just output an empty cell
      if (isset($categories[$index])) {
         echo '<td>' . $categories[$index] . '</td>';
      } else {
         echo '<td>-</td>';
      }
   }
}
echo '</table>'; 


And if you want to add in pagination, you'd better look into the SQL LIMIT clause. You'll find plenty of resources if you search for "mysql limit" or similar. I can also recommend the tutorials on tizag.com.