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Description

FOR R.M. ASH ONLY. NO OTHER BIDS ACCEPTED.

I have a table in a DB that contains the name of some "categories" that some items will be listed in. Each category can have an unlimited number of sub-categories, each of which can in turn have an unlimited depth of sub-categories below it. This is where the function comes in, so that the one function can call a new instance of itself recursively to the bottom of each sub-sub-sub-category. The table has just a few values: cat_id, name Description, SubCatOf, sort_val

The "cat_id" is the primary key and is just the ID number of the category. "name" is self-explanatory as is "description." The "sort_val" is the sorted "weight" of the category sorted ASC. The key to the problem is "SubCatOf" which is "0" for a top-level category, or equals the "cat_id" of whatever "parent category" it is directly under. This parent could be the child of another category, and so forth.

I should be able to pass a variable to the function to define the format of the output, as one of the following values:
format='list' --> should output as an unordered list <ul><li></li></ul>

format='dasharray' --> will be used to make a dropdown list and should indent with a "-" sub-categories and store the "cat_id" with it in an array array[]=("cat_id" => $cat_id, "displayname" => "- $name") or if further down, more dashes like this array[]=("cat_id" => $cat_id, "displayname" => "- - - - $name")
so that it can be outputted as such (the code to do this would be helpful as well, though I suppose I can write my own foreach to handle it if you don't have time):
<select name="SelectCategory" size="1">
<option value="1">Pets</option>
<option value="4">- Dogs</option>
<option value="7">- - Labrador</option>
<option value="8">- - Poodle</option>
<option value="5">- Cats</option>
<option value="6">- - Siamese</option>
<option value="2">Zoo Animals</option>
<option value="3">- Giraffe</option>
<option value="9">- Zebra</option>
</select>

format='orderedarray' --> same as above, but should just be an array in order containing all the original values (cat_id, name, description, sort_val, SubCatOf)

I suppose it might be easier to make a function that makes the last format above (orderedarray) first, and then run that array through a specific function for each formatting...that is fine too.

( + other requirements as needed and already discussed)

FOR R.M. ASH ONLY. NO OTHER BIDS ACCEPTED.