HTML Table Class

The Table Class provides functions that enable you to auto-generate HTML tables from arrays or database result sets.

Using the Table Class

Initializing the Class

Like most other classes in CodeIgniter, the Table class is initialized in your controller using the $this->load->library() method:

$this->load->library('table');

Once loaded, the Table library object will be available using:

$this->table

Examples

Here is an example showing how you can create a table from a multi-dimensional array. Note that the first array index will become the table heading (or you can set your own headings using the set_heading() method described in the function reference below).

$this->load->library('table');

$data = array(
        array('Name', 'Color', 'Size'),
        array('Fred', 'Blue', 'Small'),
        array('Mary', 'Red', 'Large'),
        array('John', 'Green', 'Medium')
);

echo $this->table->generate($data);

Here is an example of a table created from a database query result. The table class will automatically generate the headings based on the table names (or you can set your own headings using the set_heading() method described in the class reference below).

$this->load->library('table');

$query = $this->db->query('SELECT * FROM my_table');

echo $this->table->generate($query);

Here is an example showing how you might create a table using discrete parameters:

$this->load->library('table');

$this->table->set_heading('Name', 'Color', 'Size');

$this->table->add_row('Fred', 'Blue', 'Small');
$this->table->add_row('Mary', 'Red', 'Large');
$this->table->add_row('John', 'Green', 'Medium');

echo $this->table->generate();

Here is the same example, except instead of individual parameters, arrays are used:

$this->load->library('table');

$this->table->set_heading(array('Name', 'Color', 'Size'));

$this->table->add_row(array('Fred', 'Blue', 'Small'));
$this->table->add_row(array('Mary', 'Red', 'Large'));
$this->table->add_row(array('John', 'Green', 'Medium'));

echo $this->table->generate();

Changing the Look of Your Table

The Table Class permits you to set a table template with which you can specify the design of your layout. Here is the template prototype:

$template = array(
        'table_open'            => '<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0">',

        'thead_open'            => '<thead>',
        'thead_close'           => '</thead>',

        'heading_row_start'     => '<tr>',
        'heading_row_end'       => '</tr>',
        'heading_cell_start'    => '<th>',
        'heading_cell_end'      => '</th>',

        'tbody_open'            => '<tbody>',
        'tbody_close'           => '</tbody>',

        'row_start'             => '<tr>',
        'row_end'               => '</tr>',
        'cell_start'            => '<td>',
        'cell_end'              => '</td>',

        'row_alt_start'         => '<tr>',
        'row_alt_end'           => '</tr>',
        'cell_alt_start'        => '<td>',
        'cell_alt_end'          => '</td>',

        'table_close'           => '</table>'
);

$this->table->set_template($template);

Note

You’ll notice there are two sets of “row” blocks in the template. These permit you to create alternating row colors or design elements that alternate with each iteration of the row data.

You are NOT required to submit a complete template. If you only need to change parts of the layout you can simply submit those elements. In this example, only the table opening tag is being changed:

$template = array(
        'table_open' => '<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" class="mytable">'
);

$this->table->set_template($template);

You can also set defaults for these in a config file.

Class Reference

class CI_Table
$function = NULL

Allows you to specify a native PHP function or a valid function array object to be applied to all cell data.

$this->load->library('table');

$this->table->set_heading('Name', 'Color', 'Size');
$this->table->add_row('Fred', '<strong>Blue</strong>', 'Small');

$this->table->function = 'htmlspecialchars';
echo $this->table->generate();

In the above example, all cell data would be ran through PHP’s htmlspecialchars() function, resulting in:

<td>Fred</td><td>&lt;strong&gt;Blue&lt;/strong&gt;</td><td>Small</td>
generate([$table_data = NULL])
Parameters:
  • $table_data (mixed) – Data to populate the table rows with
Returns:

HTML table
Return type:

string

Returns a string containing the generated table. Accepts an optional parameter which can be an array or a database result object.

set_caption($caption)
Parameters:
  • $caption (string) – Table caption
Returns:

CI_Table instance (method chaining)
Return type:

CI_Table

Permits you to add a caption to the table.

$this->table->set_caption('Colors');
set_heading([$args = array()[, ...]])
Parameters:
  • $args (mixed) – An array or multiple strings containing the table column titles
Returns:

CI_Table instance (method chaining)
Return type:

CI_Table

Permits you to set the table heading. You can submit an array or discrete params:

$this->table->set_heading('Name', 'Color', 'Size');

$this->table->set_heading(array('Name', 'Color', 'Size'));
add_row([$args = array()[, ...]])
Parameters:
  • $args (mixed) – An array or multiple strings containing the row values
Returns:

CI_Table instance (method chaining)
Return type:

CI_Table

Permits you to add a row to your table. You can submit an array or discrete params:

$this->table->add_row('Blue', 'Red', 'Green');

$this->table->add_row(array('Blue', 'Red', 'Green'));

If you would like to set an individual cell’s tag attributes, you can use an associative array for that cell. The associative key data defines the cell’s data. Any other key => val pairs are added as key=’val’ attributes to the tag:

$cell = array('data' => 'Blue', 'class' => 'highlight', 'colspan' => 2);
$this->table->add_row($cell, 'Red', 'Green');

// generates
// <td class='highlight' colspan='2'>Blue</td><td>Red</td><td>Green</td>
make_columns([$array = array()[, $col_limit = 0]])
Parameters:
  • $array (array) – An array containing multiple rows’ data
  • $col_limit (int) – Count of columns in the table
Returns:

An array of HTML table columns
Return type:

array

This method takes a one-dimensional array as input and creates a multi-dimensional array with a depth equal to the number of columns desired. This allows a single array with many elements to be displayed in a table that has a fixed column count. Consider this example:

$list = array('one', 'two', 'three', 'four', 'five', 'six', 'seven', 'eight', 'nine', 'ten', 'eleven', 'twelve');

$new_list = $this->table->make_columns($list, 3);

$this->table->generate($new_list);

// Generates a table with this prototype

<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>one</td><td>two</td><td>three</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>four</td><td>five</td><td>six</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>seven</td><td>eight</td><td>nine</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>ten</td><td>eleven</td><td>twelve</td></tr>
</table>
set_template($template)
Parameters:
  • $template (array) – An associative array containing template values
Returns:

TRUE on success, FALSE on failure
Return type:

bool

Permits you to set your template. You can submit a full or partial template.

$template = array(
        'table_open'  => '<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" class="mytable">'
);

$this->table->set_template($template);
set_empty($value)
Parameters:
  • $value (mixed) – Value to put in empty cells
Returns:

CI_Table instance (method chaining)
Return type:

CI_Table

Lets you set a default value for use in any table cells that are empty. You might, for example, set a non-breaking space:

$this->table->set_empty("&nbsp;");
clear()
Returns:CI_Table instance (method chaining)
Return type:CI_Table

Lets you clear the table heading and row data. If you need to show multiple tables with different data you should to call this method after each table has been generated to clear the previous table information. Example:

$this->load->library('table');

$this->table->set_heading('Name', 'Color', 'Size');
$this->table->add_row('Fred', 'Blue', 'Small');
$this->table->add_row('Mary', 'Red', 'Large');
$this->table->add_row('John', 'Green', 'Medium');

echo $this->table->generate();

$this->table->clear();

$this->table->set_heading('Name', 'Day', 'Delivery');
$this->table->add_row('Fred', 'Wednesday', 'Express');
$this->table->add_row('Mary', 'Monday', 'Air');
$this->table->add_row('John', 'Saturday', 'Overnight');

echo $this->table->generate();