Print Array if Condition Exists

I'm working on a printing a baseball team lineup, via php. I want to print a place holder for a missing Player 6 (or any missing position)

So if Player 1 -> Player 5 is OK print, NO Player #6 print place holder, Player 7 -> Player 9 is OK print. I tried to simplify the code. I have tried solving this every which way but I keep getting stuck.

CODE:

$rot        = array();
$pos        = array();
$jn             = array();

$x = 1;
// loads up the arrays from the db
while ( $rot[$x], $pos[$x], $jn[$x])= $r->fetch_row() ) {
$x++;
}

// counts the actual number of players in linuep
// used for validation and error display
$num_players = mysqli_num_rows($r);

// controls the lineup position
for ($i = 1; $i <= 15; $i++){
    if($rot[$i] == $i) {
    //prints player             
$lineup .= "<div data-fp='" . $pos[$i] . "'>" .$jn[$i]. "</div>";
    } else {
        // prints place holder
        $text = "This Position needs to be filled before the next game.";
        $lineup .= "<div id='pid' data-rel='".$text."' data-fp='' data-pid='' data-jn='' title=''>x</div>";
    }
}

I also tried this to iterate through the array rot[] to find the matching position and print the line but it actually prints the holder repeatedly.

// controls the lineup position
for ($x = 1; $x <= 15; $x++){

for ($i = 1; $i <= ($num_players+1); $i++) {
  if ($x == $i) {  
       //prints player              
        $lineup .= "<div data-fp='" . $pos[$i] . "'>" .$jn[$i]. "</div>";
    } else {
        // prints place holder
        $text = "This Position needs to be filled before the next game.";
        $lineup .= "<div id='pid' data-rel='".$text."' data-fp='' data-pid='' data-jn='' title=''>x</div>";
    }
  }
}

What about:

# index all players by position while taking them from the database

$players = array();
while ( $row = $r->fetch_row() ) {
    list($rot, $pos, $jn) = $row;
    $players[$pos] = compact(array('rot', $pos, $jn);
}

...

# line-up players
for ($pos = 1; $pos <= 15; $pos++)
{
    $playerExists = isset($players[$pos]);

    if ($playerExists)
    {
       # do this ...
    }
    else
    {
       # do that ...
    }
}

I think you are creating an array where all numerical elements are filled (i.e. you'll always have a 1 thru 15) and your mistake is in the if($rot[$i] == $i) {

When populating the arrays from the database, add this line: $playertoid = array_flip($pos); # pos is the player number array?

i.e. while ( ($rot[$x], $pos[$x], $jn[$x])= $r->fetch_row() ) { $x++; } $playertoid = array_flip($pos);

Now you've created a reverse lookup table where the index is the player number.

Replace the if($rot[$i] == $i) { line with: if (isset($playertoid[$i])) {