Parsing multiple rows from MySQL and inserting into HTML table

Question

I currently have a MySQL database that I am accessing using PHP. You search a name and it returns the person's contact information. However, sometimes you search a name that already exists and it returns 2 peoples contact information.

I am inserting the information into an HTML table using JavaScript. PHP is returning the contact information as a long string separated by spaces. And I am using the split function while using the space character as a delimiter.

This is all fine and dandy when the search result only returns 1 name. When it returns 2 names I am having trouble figuring out how separate the two contact's information. Since PHP is returning them as 1 continuous string.

Here is an snippet of my php code:

$data = mysql_query($sqlString) or die("Issue here:" . mysql_error());

    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($data)){
        print $row['firstName'] . " " . $row['lastName'];
    };

Here is a snippet of my JavaScript Code:

$.post("searchDB.php", {search:$("#searchValue").val(), 
       searchType:$("#searchType").val()}, 
       function(results) {
          var parsedResults = results.split(" ");
          //code for inserting into HTML.
       });

Answer 1

I'd suggest using a delimeter to separate one person's full-name from the next:

$data = mysql_query($sqlString) or die("Issue here:" . mysql_error());

    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($data)){
        print $row['firstName'] . " " . $row['lastName'] . "__";
    };

Leading to the following jQuery (this on the assumption you don't need to separate out the first-name and last-name to different elements):

$.post("searchDB.php", {search:$("#searchValue").val(), 
       searchType:$("#searchType").val()}, 
       function(results) {
          var fullNames = results.split('__');
          var table = $('tableSelector');
          for (var i=0,len=fullNames.length; i<len; i++){
              var newTr = $('<tr />').append('<td>' + fullNames[i] + '</td>');
              $(newTr).appendTo(table);
          }
       });

If, on the other hand, you need to have first-name and last-name in separate cells:

$.post("searchDB.php", {search:$("#searchValue").val(), 
       searchType:$("#searchType").val()}, 
       function(results) {
          var fullNames = results.split('__');
          var table = $('tableSelector');
          for (var i=0,len=fullNames.length; i<len; i++){
              var firstName = fullNames[i].split(' ')[0];
              var lastName = fullNames[i].split(' ')[1];

              var newTr = $('<tr />').append('<td>' + firstName + '</td><td>' + lastName + '</td>');
              $(newTr).appendTo(table);
          }
       });

Answer 2

<?php
  $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table WHERE name='$name'"); //sample query
  $output = "";
  while ($data = mysql_fetch_array($result){
    foreach($data as $key => &$value){
      $output .= $value." ";
    }
  $output .= "\n" // new MySQL row delimiter
  }
?>

You can choose whatever you want for new row delimiter (here i chose new line) Then you just output $output however you want :) (print / echo) // and then you parse it somehow trough javascript