Html table plugin

[eluser]xwero[/eluser]
Yesterday my attention was drawn to the html table class and because it got stuck in my head i created the html table plugin.

It does everything the html table class does except for adding a database object as table content.

The benefits are :
- no markup in the controller
- more in control of the output
- multiple header rows

Code:

<?php
function table($view_path,$body,$header= array(),$footer = array(),$columns=0)
{
    if( ! is_array($body))
    {
        return '';
    }
    // return $header and $footer parameters to default state in case a
    // developer used a string when calling the function
    if( ! is_array($header)){ $header = array(); }

    if( ! is_array($footer)){ $footer = array(); }
    // if the header and footer parameters are a single array a two dimensional
    // array is created
    if( count($header) > 0 && ! is_array($header[0])) { $header = array($header); }

    if( count($footer) > 0 && ! is_array($footer[0])) { $footer = array($footer); }
    // create columns from single array
    if(is_numeric($columns) && $columns > 0)
    {
        $body = array_chunk($body,$columns);
    }

    if(! is_array($body[0])) { $body = array($body); }

    ob_start();
    include($view_path);
    return ob_get_clean();
}

Put this code in a file named table_pi.php. To get the view path easy you can add the following function to the plugin file or another helper that you know is loaded.

Code:

function view_path($view)
{
  $CI =& get_instance(); // You can add file_exists check after this line
  return $CI->load->_ci_view_path.$view.EXT;
}

And it's good to go. Some usage examples

Code:

/* break array up into multiple columns */
$body = array('one', 'two', 'three', 'four', 'five', 'six', 'seven', 'eight', 'nine', 'ten', 'eleven', 'twelve');

echo table(view_path('table/columns'),$body,'','',3);
// table/columns.php
<table>&lt;?php foreach($body as $row): ?&gt;
<tr>&lt;?php foreach($row as $cell): ?&gt;
<td>&lt;?php echo $cell ?&gt;</td>&lt;?php endforeach ?&gt;
</tr>&lt;?php endforeach ?&gt;
</table>

/* header, footer, body */
$header = array(array(1,2,3),array('multiple','rows','possible'));

$body = array(array(4,5,6),array(7,8,9));

$footer = array('no','wrapper array','needed');

echo table(view_path('table/hbf'),$body,$header,$footer);
// table/hbf.php
<table>
<thead>&lt;?php foreach($header as $row): ?&gt;
<tr>&lt;?php foreach($row as $cell): ?&gt;
<th>&lt;?php echo $cell ?&gt;</th>&lt;?php endforeach ?&gt;
</tr>&lt;?php endforeach ?&gt;
</thead>
<tbody>&lt;?php foreach($body as $row): ?&gt;
<tr>&lt;?php foreach($row as $cell): ?&gt;
<td>&lt;?php echo $cell ?&gt;</td>&lt;?php endforeach ?&gt;
</tr>&lt;?php endforeach ?&gt;
</tbody>
<tfoot>&lt;?php foreach($footer as $row): ?&gt;
<tr>&lt;?php foreach($row as $cell): ?&gt;
<td>&lt;?php echo $cell ?&gt;</td>&lt;?php endforeach ?&gt;
</tr>&lt;?php endforeach ?&gt;
</tfoot>
</table>

Enjoy!

UPDATE 1 : If $header, $body or $footer are a single array it will be transformed to a two dimensional array

UPDATE 2 : based on sophistry's response i removed the nested loop and replaced the not empty check with a count higher than 0 check.