PHPTAL Dynamic Table Generation - template-tal

Question

I find myself creating various tables for tabular data quite a bit, and would like to create a macro that can dynamically create tables based on a data structure defined in the calling template (not in the PHP code). Here's a simplistic example:
<!-- Define the macro -->
<tal:block metal:define-macro="table">
<table>
<tr tal:repeat="row data">
<td tal:repeat="col row" tal:content="col" />
</tr>
</table>
</tal:block>
<!-- Use the macro -->
<tal:block tal:define="data ???" metal:use-macro="table" />
What I'm looking for is how to define data (an array structure) from within PHPTAL itself. The reason I can't define this as a template variable in PHP (ex. $tpl->data = array(...)) is because the order and layout of the data belongs in the template. So, for example, if I wanted to flip the X and Y axes of the table, I should only have to modify the template, not the PHP code.
Edit:
To give an example, say I have arbitrary template variables foo, bar, and baz. I can use these in the templates like so:
<span tal:content="foo" /><br />
<span tal:content="bar" /><br />
<span tal:content="baz" />
How can I construct these variables into a two-dimensional data structure of rows and columns which I can then feed into a table-generating macro? Something like this (note: this doesn't actually work):
<tal:block tal:define="data [foo, bar; baz]" metal:use-macro="table" />
Where the desired output from the macro would be:
<table>
<tr>
<td>foo</td>
<td>bar</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>baz</td>
</tr>
</table>
And later on, if I wanted to swap the positions of foo and bar, I'd only need to modify the template and change the definition of data to data [bar, foo; baz].

Answer 1

You should probably use helper methods, e.g. either php:transpose_table(input_data) or wrap it in a TALES function:
function phptal_tales_transposed($expr, $nothrow) {
return 'transpose_table(' . phptal_tales($expr, $nothrow) . ')';
}
<tal:block tal:define="data transposed:input_data" metal:use-macro="table" />
Transposition or sorting in PHPTAL itself would be unnecessarily complicated (PHPTAL is not XSLT :)
Answer to edit :)
If you want to combine multiple variables into array, then use:
<tal:block tal:define="data php:array(foo, bar, baz)" metal:use-macro="table" />
array_chunk() function may be useful if you want to have certain number of columns.
and if you like custom syntax, then write phptal_tales_… function that translates your […] syntax to PHP code.

Answer 2

For a Generic Table Generation: PHPTAL: Repeat Column headers and values
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th tal:repeat="r results/0">${repeat/r/key}</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tal:block tal:repeat="r results">
<tr>
<td tal:repeat="t r">${t}</td>
</tr>
</tal:block>
</tbody>
</table>