Sorting and Linking DB results via Alphabet

[jaZon]

I do not know where to begin. I have well over 9k entries in the database. Of course, with each query, not all are called, but sometimes upward of 800 can be called. I never have figured out how to limit results per page and link to each following page.

My question is how would you go about linking the query via the first letter in each. Have all results starting with an A be in one group. Have all results starting with B in another, and so on. ALSO, once in each letters group having it limited further, to maybe 15 results per page, and having page numbers. I'm very new to php and have no clue how to go about this.

To try and clear things up it would look something like this:

A | B | C | D | E | F

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 5 | 6

[jeremuck]

you would need a LIKE comparison clause as one of your where clauses
In addition to your other criteria add
AND term LIKE 'A%' will return all the ones starting with the letter A

also, you can use LIMIT at the end of your your statement to limit the number of results in addition to specifying an offset
first twenty:
LIMIT 0, 20
second twenty:
LIMIT 20, 20
third twenty:
LIMIT 40, 20
four twenty:
LIMIT 60, 20

mysql has a nice manual on the language syntax at their website www.mysql.com