Re: retrieve last n records

I see your point, and I'd really like to use Limit in the query. However, what if I want to sort those 5 last records by another field? They're already sorted DESC, so I can't do that. Kevin Stone wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "drparker" <drparker@camden.rutgers.edu> > To: <php-general@lists.php.net> > Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 2:42 PM > Subject: [PHP] retrieve last n records > > > I need to retrieve the last n records of a table, n will probably be 2 > > or 3. I know that I can accomplish this by: select * from table order > > by field DESC Limit n, but i would prefer not to do this way because it > > interferes with my sorting mechanism on the main page. Is there any > > other way to do it? > > Retrieve your records as normal and using mysql_data_seek() to move the > results pointer to the desired row then start your loop. > http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-data-seek.php > > Please note this is not an efficient way to accomplish the goal. LIMIT is > certainly the way to go and you should be able to do any sorting you need > within the SQL statement. After all retrieving, ordering and grouping > database information is what SQL was designed to do. > > - Kevin