dynamicly create table with n'th colspans

Question

So I'm trying to render a table using php (in this case laravel blade templating engine). The idea is that when you have a date time who is equal to its next item_date it would colspan.

I've been able to get it to work with a colspan of 2

@if ($index != $timesheetweeks.length() - 1 && $timesheetweek[$index]['start_date'] == $timesheetweek[$index + 1]['start_date'])
        <td colspan="2">{{{ $timesheetweek->start_date }}}</td>
    @elseif ($index != 0 && $timesheetweek[$index]['start_date'] == $timesheetweek[$index - 1]['start_date'])
    @else
        <td>{{{ $timesheetweek->start_date }}}</td>
    @endif

But what if you have 3 or more?

Answer 1

I would say try to place this logic in your controller and pass the elements to the view with a format like:

elements [
    1 => element1,
    2 => array(
        element2,
        element3
    ),
    3 => element4
]

Where element 2 and 3 shares the same 'start_date'.

In your view:

// foreach ( ... as element )
@if ( is_array($element) )
    // found some share dates
    // td colspan=count($element)
@else
    // no share
@endif