help with sorting

jairus

hi everyone,

i'm a bit new to php and just started to build a simple guestbook just for warm and getting used to the commands in php.

What i wanted to know is how do i sort my entries from newest to oldest post?

i am working from a flat file, since i dont know have to work with MySql and databases. i know i know i suck, haha.

i havent done anything special to it just yet like verifying the form and what not but any help would be quite appreciated and here is the actually guestbook.

http://violentlyfriendly.com/php/guestbook/index.php

Anon

Well....
How do you store time?

I see you can do this:

Create a bi-dimensional array containing the following info:

$Post[0]["PosterName"]
$Post[0]["Time"]
...
and such.

Then, you can use sme of PHP dorting functions to sort the whole array for the date.

If you were using MySQL (or other RD😎, u could do

SELECT * FROM postings ORDER BY date ASC (or DESC)

Upgrade. Use a db.

fLIPIS

jairus

yeah it seems to be much easier if i was dealing with a db, but i dont know how to actually set one up or even have my scripts talk to the db.

i'm still learning but its always fun tomess around with programming.

the way i have the date set is:

date("H:i, jS F");

so is there any hope for me if i just stick to a flat file and have it sorted to the most current post?

thanks again for your help

Anon

I can't really help you that much because i've been using a MySQL db since i started PHP. I tell you, look in php.net in the array reference. I can only assure you one thing. You'll have to read <B>A LOT</B>

As for setting a db, go to http://www.mysql.com

Are you on Windows? Then it is <B>VERY EASY</B> to install this db server. As a matter of fact, it comes with an installer.

After that, you'll be wondering why you weren't using db's for a start. Really. It is one hundred thousand million times more useful than flat files.

fLIPIS

Anon

If you are deadset on staying with flat file storage then I suggest sticking a timestamp in with each line entry to your txt file. Then when pulling the data out use the timestamp as your array key and then do ksort() or krsort() depending on whether you want newest first or older first.

as fLIPIS said, MySQL would be a much easier and more flexible way to go.