Oops, forgot to mention that with the alias you can change the ORDER BY
clause to use the aliased column data:
ORDER BY solarLandingDate DESC
this will only use the returned data instead of the entire column.
If you are aliasing a column it is better to use the optional AS keyword
to avoid confusion.
MySQL's DATE function returns dates formatted as 'YYYY-MM-DD' so DATE_FORMAT
is not needed here.
Niel, Bastien,
thanks for your efforts to lead me to understanding this!
I tried everything you both suggested.
Ideally I would have some clear docs that outline the syntax for me, for such an example as I need.. and I would be able to check my code myself.
Meanwhile, In every case, I just get every record in the table back as a result.
So then I thought, "try and make even a *simple* DISTINCT work, and then move on to the date thing"... so I try this:
//$foundTrackingRows=mysql_query("SELECT DISTINCT solarLandingDir, solarLandingIP, solarLandingDir, solarLandingDateTime FROM ".$whichTable." ORDER BY solarLandingDateTime DESC LIMIT $Maxrecs2Show") or die("query failed: " .mysql_error());
In all the records in this table, there are only 3 possible values in the 'solarLandingDir' column (TINYTEXT):
diysolar
solar_hm
(null)
but I still get all the records back, with each distinct 'solarLandingDir' column value represented several times.
So something really basic is missing in my understanding/code.
Can you see what it is?
-Govinda