How to do a tricky multi-parameter select?

[bunner_bob]

I'm trying to sort out the results of a tricky select. Each record has the following elements (simplified for clarity):
lastname
amount
category

Let's say my query returns 5 results. They include:
1 category A
1 category B
3 category D

I need to break down my results by category, ordered by name within each category. So my printout might look like:

Category A
Jones $100

Category B
Smith $50

Category D
Martin $10
Riley $20
Thomas $50

So what I need to do is look through my results, find out which categories actually are represented there and print only those categories (I don't want a category heading for "Category C"), and then print the results for each category within.

I guess I could do a separate query of the db for each category, but that seems clunky. Seems like less overhead if I can retrieve ALL the records and then extract them from my $result in some kind of controlled manner.

Any suggestions?

[tomhath]

What part of this is giving you trouble?

select category, lastname, amount
from myTable
order by category, lastname

In php, just keep track of when the category changes and print the header.

[bunner_bob]

Thanks - didn't know I could sort on two fields like that, which solved most of the problem. The idea to keep track of when the category changes solves the rest of the problem. So life is good !