Re: reading records alphebetically

Since you only have a few records, creating a second index with the first letter doesn't apply to you, but is a good idea in a huge db scheme. The simplest & fastest way is to take the suggestions a few people made which is SELECT * FROM table WHERE name LIKE '$letter%' I would not suggest this $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table order by name"); while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { extract($row); $first_letter = strtolower($name[0]); } NOT that it won't work, but you should consider CPU in your design, and you don't want to make the computer go through all the records sequentially to display the valid records. This would take a lot longer to deliver the results in a large file, and would consume more resources... Jack Ethan Schroeder wrote: > You can either select the letter you want through mysql with "SELECT * FROM > table WHERE name LIKE '$letter%' > > Or you can select everything: > $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table order by name"); > while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { > extract($row); > $first_letter = strtolower($name[0]); > } > > lets say > $name = "Fred"; > then > $name[0] is set to "F"; > $name[1] is set to "r"; > $name[2] is set to"e"; > and so on... > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jamie Saunders" <jamie.s@btinternet.com> > To: <php-general@lists.php.net> > Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2001 9:29 AM > Subject: [PHP] reading records alphebetically > > > Hi, > > > > I have a MySQL database set-up containing a few hundred records. I'm > trying > > to make a script that reads the 'name' field of the records and displays > > only the records of which the name field begins with a specific letter: > > > > if ($letter = A) { > > display all records of which field 'name' beings with A > > } else if ($letter = B) { > > ... > > > > I'm just starting out on this, so please excuse my ignorance :) > > > > Jamie Saunders > > jamie.s@btinternet.com > > > > > > > > -- > > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: php-general-unsubscribe@lists.php.net > > For additional commands, e-mail: php-general-help@lists.php.net > > To contact the list administrators, e-mail: php-list-admin@lists.php.net > > > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, e-mail: php-general-unsubscribe@lists.php.net > For additional commands, e-mail: php-general-help@lists.php.net > To contact the list administrators, e-mail: php-list-admin@lists.php.net -- ___________________________________________________________ Jack Sasportas Innovative Internet Solutions Phone 305.665.2500 Fax 305.665.2551 www.innovativeinternet.com www.web56.net