Create new html tables, by year, based on years changing in descending order

Question

I have data coming back from a query. It could be a join or just a simple table selecting everything. I would like the data to be presented in descending order of date. And

Answer 1

table_year_test.php

<?php
    // MYSQLI_REPORT_ALL remmed out to avoid
    //Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'mysqli_sql_exception' with message 'No index used in query/prepared statement'
    // which is certainly the case with the demo query
    //mysqli_report(MYSQLI_REPORT_ALL);
    mysqli_report(MYSQLI_REPORT_ERROR | MYSQLI_REPORT_STRICT);  // so go with this one
    error_reporting(E_ALL); // report all PHP errors
    ini_set("display_errors", 1); 

    //echo "start<br/>";
    try {
        $mysqli= new mysqli('hostname', 'dbuser', 'password', 'dbname');
        if ($mysqli->connect_error) {
            die('Connect Error (' . $mysqli->connect_errno . ') '
                . $mysqli->connect_error);
        }
        
        // your query can be a join. No difference. Just plug yours in and tweak everywhere as necessary
        $query = "select ayr,otherStuff from myTable123 order by ayr desc";

        // The following variable is used to pick up a "year change" while processing the data to segment tables
        $curYear="^^junk^^"; // so set it to junk first, so first time in is a change
        
        $bOneYet=false; // has there been any output at all yet. I mean anything? So far, no
        if(!$result = $mysqli->query($query)){
            die('There was an error running the query [' . $mysqli->error . ']');
        }
        while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) { 
            if ($row['ayr']!=$curYear) {
                // the year has changed (including the first time in this while)
                if (!$bOneYet) {
                    $bOneYet=true;  // will one get in here once
                }
                else {
                    // must end previous table
                    echo "</table><p><p>";                
                }
                // regardless, we need a new table
                echo "<table border=1><tr><th>The Year</th><th>The other thing</th></tr>";
            }
            echo "<tr><td>" . $row['ayr'] . "</td><td>" . $row['otherStuff'] . "</td></tr>";
            $curYear=$row['ayr'];   // kind of important. Facilitates subsequent year table segments
        }
        echo "</table><p>";    // close up the last dangling table
        $result->free(); 

        $mysqli->close();
    } 
    catch (mysqli_sql_exception $e) { 
        throw $e; 
    } 

Screenshot

Hopefully the source code comments are sufficient in-line to describe the way the years are segmented by tables. Focus on variable $curYear which picks up that change as the data is processed, descending, by year.

The variable $bOneYet is false only one time through the loop. The rational is that when a year change occurs, </table> is written out, except for the first time through.

Don't forget the importance of error reporting as seen at the top of the code. And steer toward mysqli or pdo.

Display errors for test and staging, never production.

Answer 2

I didn't like the way the other answer generated the tables from the database values so I decided to write a new answer.

One thing I always recommend doing is putting the code to retrieve the data from the database in a function so it's easily usable in multiple places.

Another thing that I would like to recommend is to use the HTML more like a template instead of echoing the entire table.

The rest of the specific information is in the comments in the code.

<?php

function getData() {
    $mysqli= new mysqli('localhost', 'root', '', 'test');
    if ($mysqli->connect_error) {
        die('Connect Error (' . $mysqli->connect_errno . ') ' . $mysqli->connect_error);
    }

    $query = "select id, ayr, otherStuff from myTable123 order by ayr desc";

    if(!$result = $mysqli->query($query)){
        die('There was an error running the query [' . $mysqli->error . ']');
    }

    $data = array();
    while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
        //Use the "$row['ayr']" value here to group by year. The "$row['id']" is optional but recommended as it is always unique and handy to have in some cases.
        $data[$row['ayr']][$row['id']] = array(
            "id" => $row['id'],
            "ayr" => $row['ayr'],
            "otherstuff" => $row['otherStuff'],
        );
    }

    $result->free(); 
    $mysqli->close();

    return $data;
}

//The data returned by getData() is already sorted so you only have to loop through it to generate the table.
$data_per_year = getData();

?>


<!--This loop will run for each seperate year in the array-->
<?php foreach($data_per_year as $year => $data) : ?>
<table border="1">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>Year</th>
            <th>Other stuff</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <!--This loop will run for each seperate row of data in that specific year-->
        <?php foreach ($data as $id_row => $row) : ?>
        <tr>
            <td><?php echo $row['ayr']; ?></td>
            <td><?php echo $row['otherstuff']; ?></td>
        </tr>
        <?php endforeach; ?>
    </tbody>
</table>
<?php endforeach; ?>