array manipulation

The more I get into arrays, the less I understand. I have a ridiculously simple task which excapes me completely. I need to ouput all fields in 1 column from 1 table in two phases sorted alphabetically. So, I have the query, I have the results. But since I need to split the list into 2 parts, I need indexes. I cannot use the table index as it does not correspond to the alphabetical order of the data column. In order to get the index, I sort the resulting array and that now gives me 34 arrays each containing an array of my results. Wonderful! But how do I now extract the arrays from the array? Here is what I'm trying to do: $SQL = "SELECT category FROM categories ORDER BY category ASC "; $category = array(); if ( ( $results = mysql_query($SQL, $db) ) !== false ) { while ( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($results) ) { $category[$row['category']] = $row; } sort($category); //var_dump($category); echo "<table >"; $count = mysql_num_rows($results); $lastIndex = $count/2 -1; echo $lastIndex; $ii = 0; $cat = ''; //print_r($category['0']['category']); foreach($category as $index => $value) { $ii++; if ($ii != $lastIndex) { $cat .= "$value, "; } else { $cat .= " & $value<br />"; } $catn = preg_replace("/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/", "", $cat); //echo "<pre>$category</pre>"; echo "<tr> <td><a href='../categories/", $catn, ".php'>", $cat, "</a> </td> </tr>" ; } } echo "</table>"; What should I be using in the foreach line? Please help! -- unheralded genius: "A clean desk is the sign of a dull mind. " ------------------------------------------------------------- Phil Jourdan --- pj@ptahhotep.com http://www.ptahhotep.com http://www.chiccantine.com/andypantry.php