using rowspan with array output to table in php

Solved by using:

############################################################################
######## PRINT OUT TABLE WITH YEARS AND OFFICES PLUS NAMES IN CELLS ########    
for ($y = $year_max; $y >=$year_min; $y--){ // Loop through years
    echo '<tr><th>'.$y.'</th>';

    for ($i = 0; $i<count($offices_used); $i++){

        if (isset($data[$y][$offices_used[$i]])){

            $rowz =1;


            if(!($data[$y][$offices_used[$i]] == $data[($y+1)][$offices_used[$i]])){

                while ($data[$y][$offices_used[$i]] == $data[($y-$rowz)][$offices_used[$i]]) $rowz ++; 
                echo '<td rowspan = "'.$rowz.'">'.$data[$y][$offices_used[$i]].'</td>';
            }

        } // END IF

        else {
            echo '<td align = "center"> - </td>';
        } // END ELSE

        }   echo '</tr>';  // End row of current year

} // END FOR Loop through years 
echo '</table>';

See http://jsfiddle.net/eaton9999/8gMVK/ for resultant output page.

Thanks again to imsiso and other who helped!

I wrote a library a few days ago that can handle this stuff..
Have a look at https://github.com/donquixote/cellbrush

The benefit of the library is that you don't need to think about the order of cells in html, and which cells need to be skipped due to rowspan or colspan. Instead, you can just "paint" a cell anywhere in the grid, with whichever rowspan or colspan you want. And instead of specifying a number for rowspan or colspan, you simply specify the first and last row and column names of the rospan/colspan region.

E.g.

$table->td(['2011', '2013'], 'Secretary', 'Eric Holmquist');

Below is some code that creates the table you were asking for, with the help of this library. You still need some logic to calculate the intervals, but at least you don't need to worry about the integrity of the table html.

(This question is quite old, but there might still be people running into it from Google. So I hope it might be useful.)

<?php

require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

$data = array(
  '2013' => array(
    'President' => 'John Mills',
    'Internal VP' => 'Virgil Bagdonas',
    'External VP' => 'Reid Gilmore',
    'Treasurer' => 'Todd Heino',
    'Secretary' => 'Eric Holmquist',
    'Newsletter' => 'Art Bodwell',
    'Webmaster' => 'Dave Eaton',
    'Photographer' => 'Rick Angus',
    'Video Librarian' => 'Mike Peters',
    'Store Manager' => 'Kevin Nee',
  ),
  '2012' => array(
    'President' => 'Dave Eaton',
    'Internal VP' => 'Jim Metcalf',
    'External VP' => 'Reid Gilmore',
    'Treasurer' => 'Mike Peters',
    'Secretary' => 'Eric Holmquist',
    'Newsletter' => 'Art Bodwell',
    'Webmaster' => 'Dave Eaton',
    'Photographer' => 'Peter Wilcox',
    'Video Librarian' => 'Ray Asselin',
    'Store Manager' => 'Joe Giroux',
  ),
  '2011' => array(
    'President' => 'Charlie Croteau',
    'Internal VP' => 'Reid Gilmore',
    'External VP' => 'Rick Angus',
    'Treasurer' => 'Mike Peters',
    'Secretary' => 'Eric Holmquist',
    'Newsletter' => 'Ron Rocheleau',
    'Webmaster' => 'Dave Eaton',
    'Photographer' => 'Peter Wilcox',
    'Video Librarian' => 'Ray Asselin',
    'Book Librarian' => 'Roger Boisvert',
    'Store Manager' => 'Mike Smith',
  ),
);

// Collect positions to build table columns.
$positions = [];
foreach ($data as $year => $yearData) {
  foreach ($yearData as $position => $person) {
    $positions[$position] = TRUE;
  }
}
$positions = array_keys($positions);

// Define table columns.
$table = (new \Donquixote\Cellbrush\Table())
  ->addColName('year')
  ->addColNames($positions)
;

// Create thead section.
$headRow = $table->thead()->addRow('head');
$headRow->th('year', 'Year');
foreach ($positions as $position) {
  $headRow->th($position, $position);
}

// Create table rows with labels based on year.
$years = array_keys($data);
$table->addRowNames($years);
foreach ($years as $year) {
  $table->th($year, 'year', $year);
}

// Fill table cells in each column.
foreach ($positions as $position) {
  $periodPerson = NULL;
  $periodFirstYear = NULL;
  $periodLastYear = NULL;
  $column = $table->colHandle($position);
  foreach ($years as $year) {
    $person = isset($data[$year][$position])
      ? $data[$year][$position]
      : '-';
    if (!isset($periodFirstYear)) {
      // First year.
      $periodFirstYear = $year;
    }
    elseif ($person !== $periodPerson) {
      // Add a table cell with rowspan.
      $column->td([$periodFirstYear, $periodLastYear], $periodPerson);
      $periodFirstYear = $year;
    }
    $periodPerson = $person;
    $periodLastYear = $year;
  }
  if (isset($periodFirstYear)) {
    // Add a table cell with rowspan.
    $column->td([$periodFirstYear, $periodLastYear], $periodPerson);
  }
}

print $table->render();