Writing Apache Modules with Perl and C

F.1. Dynamic Tables

One very powerful feature of Embperl is its ability to process dynamic tables. This feature was designed mainly to display Perl arrays (one- or two-dimensional, regular and irregular), but it can also be used in other ways.

Here is an example that displays a Perl array:

[- @a = ( 'A', 'B', 'C') ; -]
<TABLE BORDER=1>
   <TR>
       <TD> [+ $a[$row] +] </TD>
  </TR>
</TABLE>

This example simply displays a table with three rows containing A, B, and C. The trick is done by using the magical variable $row which contains the row count and is incremented for every row. The table ends if the expression that contains $row returns undef. The same can be done with $col for columns. You can also use $cnt to create a table that wraps after a certain number of elements. This works with TABLE, SELECT, MENU, OL, DL, and DIR.

Here is a simple DBI example that displays the result of a query as a two-dimensional table with field names as headings in the first row:

[-
# connect to database
 $dbh = DBI->connect($DSN) ;

# prepare the sql select
$sth = $dbh -> prepare ("SELECT * from $table") ;

# excute the query
$sth -> execute ;

# get the fieldnames for the heading in $head
$head = $sth -> {NAME} ;

# get the result in $dat
$dat = $sth -> fetchall_arrayref ;
-]

<table>
   <tr><th>[+ $head->[$col] +]</th></tr>
   <tr><td>[+ $dat -> [$row][$col] +]</td></tr>
</table>