function echo_result($result) {
    ?><table>
    <tr><?
    if (! $result) {
        ?><th>result not valid</th><?
    } else {
        $i = 0;
        while ( $i < mysql_num_fields ( $result ) ) {
            $meta = mysql_fetch_field ( $result, $i );
            ?><th style="white-space: nowrap"><?=$meta->name?></th><?
            $i ++;
        }
        ?></tr><?

        if (mysql_num_rows ( $result ) == 0) {
            ?><tr>
        <td colspan="<?=mysql_num_fields ( $result )?>"><strong>
        <center>no result</center>
        </strong></td>
    </tr><?
        } else
            while ( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc ( $result ) ) {
                ?><tr style="white-space: nowrap"><?
                foreach ( $row as $key => $value ) {
                    ?><td><?=$value?></td><?
                }
                ?></tr><?
            }
    }
    ?></table><?
}