Very frequently your client will want to place data into an HTML table, for
display of the browser. To review some HTML, let me state the three basic rules
of table tags:
Begin and end the entire table with <TABLE BORDER="1">
and </TABLE>
Begin and end each row with <TR> and </TR>
Begin and end each cell with <TD> and </TD>
Using the double quotes for the border value ensures universal
readability. However, many common browsers do not require them.
To build tables that display our data, we need to mix HTML
table tags into the data that ADO returns. The most basic table contains only
one row (one record or one name) and two columns, as follows. This is
artificially easy, but a good way to start:
<%
dim oRSst
Set
oRSst=server.createobject("ADODB.recordset")
oRSst.open "People",
"DSN=Sailors"
response.write "<table
BORDER='1'>"
response.write "<tr>"
response.write "<td>"
response.write
oRSst("PeopleNameFirst")
response.write "</td>"
response.write "<td>"
response.write
oRSst("PeopleNameLast")
response.write "</td>"
response.write "</tr>"
response.write
"</table>"
%>
The code sample above lays out the logic very explicitly. In
the following listing we condense this to fewer lines of code. Keep in mind
that this is still the same very simple 1-row, 2-column table:
<%
dim oRSst2
Set
oRSst2=server.CreateObject("ADODB.recordset")
oRSst2.open "People",
"DSN=Sailors"
Response.Write "<TABLE
BORDER='1'><TR><TD>"
Response.Write
oRSst2("PeopleNameFirst")
Response.Write
"</TD><TD>"
Response.Write
oRSst2("PeopleNameLast")
Response.Write
"</TD></TR></TABLE>"
%>
We can also use the Response.Write shortcut to further
condense the code that generates this table, as follows. However, it is general
good practice not to code your ASPs this way as separating your server side
scripting rather than keeping it all together in the same place degrades
performance.
<%
dim oRSst3
Set
oRSst3=server.CreateObject("ADODB.recordset")
oRSst3.open "People",
"DSN=Sailors"
%>
<TABLE BORDER="1">
<TR><TD><%=oRSst3("PeopleNameFirst")%></TD>
<TD><%=oRSst3("PeopleNameLast")%></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
It is rare that you have a client that will be satisfied
with a one-row table! Tables usually present data on many records. We will
explore that technique first with a table that produces three rows as a result
of putting the code for a row within a For…Next loop in the code below. Of course, we can only loop
within ASP, so we will have to forget about the Response.Write
shortcut used above; instead we'll revert to writing the HTML tags from within
ASP, and using Response.Write explicitly:
<%
dim iRowCounter
dim oRSfn
set
oRSfn=server.CreateObject("adodb.recordset")
oRSfn.open "People",
"DSN=Sailors"
oRSfn.MoveFirst
Response.Write "<TABLE
BORDER='1'>"
For iRowCounter=1 to 3
Response.Write "<TR><TD>" &
oRSfn("PeopleNameFirst") & "</TD>"
Response.Write "<TD>" &
oRSfn("PeopleNameLast") & "</TD></TR>"
oRSfn.MoveNext
Next
Response.Write
"</TABLE>"
%>
Note in the above listing that we have to be sure that the
table tags are outside of the loop but the rows and cell tags are inside the
loop. For the purposes of this demo we
are assuming that there are at least three records; in the real world that
would be a dangerous assumption.
The common errors on the above code include:
(the usual problems in creating recordsets)
Putting the <TABLE> or </TABLE> inside the loop
Leaving out </TABLE>
Putting more than one <TR> or </TR> in a row
Forgetting to include the .MoveNext
line within the loop
Trying to retrieve more records than are available in the
database
In later sections of the book we discuss even faster and
more eloquent ways to build a table.
Let's use the Clothier database again, to create a table
that shows the Name and department of the first five items.
<TITLE>2726-03-SimpleRS TIO
Building a Table of the First Five Clothing Items</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>Chapter 3 Simple
Recordsets<BR>
Try It Out - <BR>
Building a Table of <BR>
the First Five Clothing
Items</h1>
<%
dim oRSc
dim iRowCounter
set
oRSc=server.CreateObject("adodb.recordset")
oRSc.open "items",
"DSN=clothier"
oRSc.MoveFirst
Response.Write "<TABLE
BORDER='1'>"
For iRowCounter = 1 to 5
Response.Write "<TR><TD>" &
oRSc("ItemName") & "</TD>"
Response.Write "<TD>" &
oRSc("ItemDepartment") & "</TD></TR>"
oRSc.MoveNext
next
%>
</TABLE></BODY</html>
The above code produces the following screen.
How It Works - Building a Table of the First Five Clothing Items
The following lines create the recordset and ensure that we
are positioned at the first record:
dim oRSc
dim iRowCounter
set
oRSc=server.CreateObject("adodb.recordset")
oRSc.open "items",
"DSN=clothier"
oRSc.MoveFirst
Then we begin to write the table to the web page. First, we
write the <TABLE> tag, which belongs outside the loop:
Response.Write "<TABLE
BORDER='1'>"
Now we can loop through the first five records. Note that,
like all For...Next Loops we need a counter to
keep track of the number of loops that have been performed. In each loop we
write the open row tag <TR> then the tags and data for the two cells in
the two columns:
For iRowCounter = 1 to 5
Response.Write "<TR><TD>" &
oRSc("ItemName") & "</TD>"
Response.Write "<TD>" &
oRSc("ItemDepartment") & "</TD></TR>"
oRSc.MoveNext
next
%>
And then we place the
table close tag outside of the loop as follows.
</TABLE>
</BODY</html>
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