sort by

[wittanthony]

How do you sort a database and display it on the screen? I'm looking for an easy way to sort by date. Also whats the best way to have the date entered in a database?

Thanks for your help in advance.

[PHPdev]

Well... Standard SQL queries use an ORDER BY clause, and the standard syntax is

SELECT * FROM a WHERE ... ORDER BY a.field1, a.field2 [asc, desc]

Now on to how to store your dates... it all depends on what DB you are running, some will have a Date filed... some will have a Date/Time field... most will have both. Then under MySQL you can also use the timestamp to store the date. There are various different formats dates will be stored in "YYYY-MM-DD", "MM-DD-YYYY", but most databases can convert the format for you.

Hope this helps...

PHPdev

[wittanthony]

Thanks for your help. I'll convert the dates that I have in the database already to that format.

I have 1 more question. I'm using mysql for the database. I know how to write the sql statement but need a little help with limit by. I want to limit the number of entries displayed to 8 or 10 per page. What would I have to set the limit to in order to do this?

Select * from files Order by added Limit ?,?

[PHPdev]

Yea there is a LIMIT in mysql...

the first number is the number of records to show... the second is the numered recored to start with? or start with the one after?

So if you show 10 per page... an I'm on the second page... you would

SELECT * FROM a ORDER BY added LIMIT 10, 11

Page 3:

SELECT * FROM a ORDER BY added LIMIT 10, 21

PHPdev

[Sxooter]

I think mysql does it backwards, instead of limit num,offset, it does it limit offset, num

So, you'd need to reverse those numbers.