Find categories that have a information in them

Hi all! I have a database with the setup

cat_id | cat_name | cat_parent

that is pretty self explanitory, as I am sure we have all been on the subcategory programming before

Now, I have another table items

item_id | item_name | item...... | item_category

when browsing a particular category, I get the items by finding item_category = current category


Now, I need to compile a directory list from the root
with only the categories that have values.

So lets say i have
cars
-- mazda
-- chevy
trucks
-- chevy
-- GMC
-- Duramax

Lets say the only two categories that have values are cars->mazda
and
trucks->gmc->duramax

How would I get the values from only these two categories?

I have been up and down this, will little to no luck at all.

If anyone knows of a tutorial, or helpfull code, please feel free to leave it

Thank you,
Drew

 

The only way u would know if values existed(dynamicly anyhow) is by quering it. So just loop through the results

if($value !=""){
//Value exists Do something
}

 

Hmm, not quite.

After playing around a bit, I have ended up an array containing only the categories that the item is in...

I am going to change this to just a programming standpoint to make it easier to read...

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [1] => Design And Development
            [3] => Programming
            [16] => PHP
            [total_tutorials] => 2
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [1] => Design And Development
            [3] => Programming
            [19] => Coldfusion
            [total_tutorials] => 1
        )

Code (markup):

This is becoming the hard part now... maybe I just need to take a break with it...

I would want it to come out like this:

If I am in the root directory

root/design and development (tutorials: 3)

If I am in the programming directory

root > design and development > programming (3)

If i am in the PHP directory:

root > design and development > programming > PHP (2)

Etc, do you see what I am trying to accomplish. Now that I have the array of the breadcrumbs to and the count of tutorials existing, it is simply the issue of combining the data as to not display it twice depending on which category I am currently at.

Any help/suggestions ?