Display rows from MYSQL query as columns in HTML table

Question

I have a MYSQL database storing levels for students for each terms work.

I'm fine creating the php page, with query etc and very comfortable with the hmtl/css required to create tables. I have a basic understanding of arrays.

Where I am struggling is how to take each students data and display it in columns in the html table.

Previously my assessment table in the database had multiple colums - aut7, spr7, sum7 etc so it was easy to display in an html table. However I have been trying to make the database more effective so am now storing each assessment as a separate record - database is much better set-up but has thrown up the following problem (well lack of knowledge on my part!!)

A simple example of what I mean is as follows:

This is the result of a query:

student_id   term    level
  1          aut7      3b
  1          spr7      3a
  1          sum7      4c
  2          aut7      3a
  2          spr7      4c
  2          sum7      4b

I would like it in displayed in my html/css table as follows:

 Student      Aut7      Spr7     Sum7
   1           3b        3a       4c
   2           3a        4c       4a

If anyone could help a relative newcomer to PHP/MySQL I would be very grateful.

Answer 1

You need to pivot your results. Unfortunately MySQL does have PIVOT but you can build a query like this to achieve the same results

SELECT student_id, 
  MAX(CASE WHEN term = 'aut7' THEN level END) Aut7,
  MAX(CASE WHEN term = 'spr7' THEN level END) Spr7,
  MAX(CASE WHEN term = 'sum7' THEN level END) Sum7
FROM student_terms
GROUP BY student_id

See demo in SQL Fiddle