alphabetize..clueless

alexgm14

hi, i am making a script and i am wondering how should i begin this? i want a script like this: http://codes.ign.com/lists/20115/068/index.html

and i know how to alhabetize results on just 1 page but how can i put the a's on the a's page and the b's on the b's page, etc.

laserlight

you are working with an SQL database?

One of the general ideas here would be a
SELECT ... LIKE 'a%'
sort of query, so only those entries that begin with 'a' are selected.

tekky

Originally posted by laserlight
you are working with an SQL database?

One of the general ideas here would be a
SELECT ... LIKE 'a%'
sort of query, so only those entries that begin with 'a' are selected.

yup that works for the A B C page thing... just using the links for those to pass the LIKE values, to alphbetize

SELECT name from table ORDER BY name ASC/DESC [depending on which order you want]

and just to explain Laserlights method,

in a LIKE statement % is like an * (any number of chars) in windows/dos, and _ is like the ? wildcard (single char) in windows/dos systems

examples

alexgm14

alrite im a lil or lot confused. lets say i make my 'a' page. Where do i put this sql code in my database? or in the php file? maybe someone could make an example for me im rlly lost.

tekky

your hrefs would look something like...

http://www.mydomain.com/index.php?get=a

your code

if (isset($_GET['get']))
{
     $match = $_GET['get'];
     $query = "SELECT * FROM $mytable LIKE '$match%'";
}
else
{
     $query = "SELECT * FROM $mytable";
}
$result = mysql_query($query);
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
     do this with data;
     and this;
}

this would work with single chars or partial nicks

if ?get=A you would get results like
Anderson
Abigail
Andy
Ahole

if ?get=Ban you would get results like
Bands
Bandit
Ban
Bane
Banally
Banlkslfdksldfsdfsdfirjfisrjgs
etc etc.

alexgm14

so when i make my forum i have to use the 'get' method? and then i just link to that php file with my form?

post="that php file u made" method="get"

would that be rite?

tekky

you wouldnt even need to use a form for that, just do <a href=yourpage?get=a>insert how you want the A link to appear</href>

anything in the form of ?name=value&name2=value2 after a URL is automatically considered GET information

alexgm14

but how would it know to go to the 'a' page if u just do

<a href=yourpage?get=a>

would u have to put this page on the same page where u put the sql code? and will this sql code work if i am using a mysql database?

tekky

the HREF i posted would CALL the page with the php/sql code

the php would parse the get=a into a variable that the SQL query would use to generate the LIKE statement which selects ONLY the queries matching the beginning of the $match variable

Ravenous

You're accessing the same page everytime. The only difference is the data drawn from your database. ?grab=a, ?grab=b, ?grab=c all reference the same page but display different information on the page. This is akin to using functions and passing different parameters. The page/function will perform the same operations on two different sets of data and give you two different outputs.

tekky

Originally posted by Ravenous
You're accessing the same page everytime. The only difference is the data drawn from your database. ?grab=a, ?grab=b, ?grab=c all reference the same page but display different information on the page. This is akin to using functions and passing different parameters. The page/function will perform the same operations on two different sets of data and give you two different outputs.

exactly....
if you want an example of this... look at your address bar now.... then click to another post and look at the address bar.... THAT is exactly what your page would do... OR, you can look at http://tekky.xnet.org/filemon/

that page... is ONE index.php but will display any number of images.....

tekky

to answer your question from PM:

this will work for ANY year, w/o changing any code as long as the following is true

1) they will always get 18days/year
2) if 3 or more years, they get 1 and only 1 day of bonus leave (easily fixed to give an increasing number for years over 3)