Generate un-ordered list based on categories

I need un-ordered list to be populated from categories table.

categories: 0 -> represents parent category.

id name parent 1 n1 0 2 n2 1 3 n3 2 4 n4 3 5 n5 1 6 n6 0 ........

I tried using following:

$menu_array is array that contains the categories table as associative array.

while ( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($query) ) {  
        $menu_array[$row['id']] = array('name' => $row['name'],'parent' => $row['parent']);  
}   


function generate_menu($parent)  
{  

  //this prevents printing 'ul' if we don't have subcategories for this category  
        $has_childs = false;   
//use global array variable instead of a local variable to lower stack memory requierment    
        global $menu_array;  
        foreach($menu_array as $key => $value)  
        {  
                if ($value['parent'] == $parent)   
                {         
                        //if this is the first child print '<ul>'                         
                        if ($has_childs === false)  
                        {  
          //don't print '<ul>' multiple times                               
                             $has_childs = true;  
                                echo '<ul>';  
                        }  
echo '< li>< a href="/category/' . $value['name'] . '/">' . $value['name'] . '< /a>';  
                        generate_menu($key);  
//call function again to generate nested list for subcategories belonging to this category  
                       echo '< /li>';  
                }  
        }  
        if ($has_childs === true) echo '< /ul>';  
}    

When run the above code in server, I get html output(view source):

< ul>

< li>

开发者_如何学Go < a href="#">Site Templates< /a>

< ul>

< li>< a href="#">Creative< /a>

< ul>

< li>< a href="#">Portfolio< /a>< /li>

< li>< a href="#">Photography< /a>< /li>

< li>< a href="#">Art< /li>

< /ul>

< /li>

.....

I want to get like:   
< ul id="jsddm">  
    < li>< a href="#">Parent Category 1< /a>  
        < ul>  
            < li><a href="#">Sub Category 1 - 1< /a>< /li>  
            < li><a href="#">Sub Category 2 - 1< /a>< /li>  
            < li><a href="#">Sub Category 3 - 1< /a>< /li>  
        < /ul>  
    </ li>      
        < li><a href="#">Parent Category 2< /a>< /li>     
< /ul>    

any help would be appreciated.

---

I got the answer for my own question. I was trying to implement multi-level drop down but was using single drop down list. Thanks for the comments.

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u must read this properly
jQuery UI TAB