Need help with dynamically sorting list displayed on webpage.

vryce

I have a webpage that has a table with 3 columns.

I have the first row of the table holding the column names, which are clickable and do sort the list in ascending order.

I need to have it so that if you click on a header once, it sorts the display asceding. And if you click it again, it sorts it descending.

Here is the code that I have working so far:

<?php
// If the $orderby variable is not set, default to 'TeaType'

if (! isset($orderby)) :
$orderby = "TeaType";
endif;

// create and execute query. Any retrieved data is sorted in ascending order
$query = "SELECT ID, TeaType, Flavour, Company, CompanyURL FROM teas ORDER BY $orderby";
$result = mysql_query($query);

// create table header 
?>

<table border = 1 >
<tr>
<th><a href="teajournalindex.php?orderby=TeaType" title="Click to sort in ascending order by Tea Type">Tea Type</a></th>
<th><a href="teajournalindex.php?orderby=Flavour" title="Click to sort in ascending order by Flavour">Flavour</a></th>
<th><a href="teajournalindex.php?orderby=Company" title="Click to sort in ascending order by Company">Company</a></th>
</tr>

In the title portion of the 3 href links, I need to replace ascending with a variable that holds whether clicking will sort ascending, or descending. I hope that makes sense.

And here is the page that I have up.

http://www.solitaryspaces.com/teajournal/teajournal.php

Thanks in advance.

jokeruk

How about...

<?php
// If the $orderby variable is not set, default to 'TeaType'

if (! isset($orderby)) :
$orderby = "TeaType";
endif;

// Check current direction (from URL) and set vars accordingly

if ($direction=="ASC" || $direction=="")
{
$new_sort = "DESC";
$sql_direction = "ASC";
}

if ($direction=="DESC")
{
$new_sort = "ASC";
$sql_direction = "DESC";
}

// create and execute query. Any retrieved data is sorted in ascending order
$query = "SELECT ID, TeaType, Flavour, Company, CompanyURL FROM teas ORDER BY $orderby $sql_direction";
$result = mysql_query($query);

// create table header
?>

<table border = 1 >
<tr>
<th><a href="teajournalindex.php?orderby=TeaType&direction=$new_sort" title="Click to sort in ascending order by Tea Type">Tea Type</a></th>
<th><a href="teajournalindex.php?orderby=Flavour&direction=$new_sort" title="Click to sort in ascending order by Flavour">Flavour</a></th>
<th><a href="teajournalindex.php?orderby=Company&direction=$new_sort" title="Click to sort in ascending order by Company">Company</a></th>
</tr>

Leigh Jepson
Midnight Software (http://www.midnightsoftware.co.uk)

vryce

Okay.

Thanks... That worked great.

One thing though.

By default, the first thing it wants to sort by is Descending. I want to have it the other way.

So, I changed the order of the If statements and the lines below them. That worked and the first time a header is clicked on it sorts Ascending.

However, when the page first loads, the table is sorted Descening by default.
Putting in the code directly as you have, it didn't sort the table as soon as the page is displayed.

jokeruk

Okay,

Try replacing

if (! isset($orderby)) :
$orderby = "TeaType";
endif;

with

if (! isset($orderby)) :
$orderby = "TeaType";
$sql_direction = "ASC";
endif;

Although, I prefer to use braces around my ifs! 🙂

Leigh Jepson
Midnight Software (http://www.midnightsoftware.co.uk)