ZendFramework echo db values if first string = a? - zend-framework

Question

I have this code at the moment to echo out all my database entries, I am wondering what it looks like in ZF to echo out the entries if the first value of the db entry is a.
Code:
<table>
<?php foreach($this->clubs as $clubs) : ?>
<tr>
<td><a href="<?php echo $this->url(array('controller' => 'club-description', 'action' => 'index', 'club_id' => $clubs->id));?>">
<?php echo $this->escape($clubs->club_name);?></a></td>
<td><?php echo $this->escape($clubs->rating);?></td>
</tr>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</table>
Thanks
Rik

Answer 1

So, based on your comment it sounds like you want to group the clubs by letter on the page. Assuming they are being ordered alphabetically in your database query, the simplest way to do this is to keep a variable which stores the first letter of the last club in the loop. Then, on each iteration, you compare the first letter of the current club with the first letter of the previous club. If they are different, you output a new heading.
With your code this would look something like this:
<?php
$previousLetter = false;
?>
<table>
<?php foreach($this->clubs as $clubs) : ?>
<?php
$firstLetter = substr($clubs->_club_name, 0, 1);
if ($firstLetter != $previousLetter) {
?>
<tr>
<td><?php echo $firstLetter; ?></td>
</tr>
<?php } ?>
<tr>
<td><a href="<?php echo $this->url(array('controller' => 'club-description', 'action' => 'index', 'club_id' => $clubs->id));?>">
<?php echo $this->escape($clubs->club_name);?></a></td>
<td><?php echo $this->escape($clubs->rating);?></td>
</tr>
<?php $previousLetter = $firstLetter; ?>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</table>