To limit groups once....

[Louis-Platt]

Firstly apologies if this is the wrong forum.

<?
include ('../connection.php');

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM article_authors,article_columns
WHERE article_authors.authorid = article_columns.columnauth
ORDER BY article_columns.columndate DESC,article_authors.authorname ASC",$db)
or die (mysql_error());

if ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {

// display list if there are records to display

do {

$authorid=$row["authorid"];
$authorname=$row["authorname"];
$authorcollection=$row["authorcollection"];
$authoremail=$row["authoremail"];

?>
<? if ($currentauthor != $authorname) {

 $currentauthor = $authorname;

?>
<?

if ($authorcollection) {

?>
<p><b><a href="columns.php?author=<?echo $authorid?>"><?echo $authorcollection?></a></b>
</p>
<?

}else{

?>

<p><b><?echo $authorname?></b></p>
<?
}

}

$columnid=$row["columnid"];
$columndate=$row["columndate"];
$columntitle=$row["columntitle"];
$columnauth=$row["columnauth"];
$columnintro=$row["columnintro"];

list ($date_year, $date_month, $date_day) = explode ('-', $columndate);

$string = "$columndate";

  $stringArray = explode("-", $string);
  $date = mktime(0,0,0,$stringArray[1],$stringArray[2],$stringArray[0]);
  $convertedDate = date("d/m/Y", $date);

?>

&raquo;<a href="http://www.efc-online.net/articles/columns/<?echo $columnid?>"><?echo stripslashes($columntitle)?></a>
<br><?echo stripslashes($columnintro)?> - <?echo $convertedDate?><br>
<?
} while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result));
}
?>

This outputs as follows:

Author1
Column1
Column2

Author2
Column1
Column2

Author3
Column1
Column2

Author2
Column1
Column2

These are sorted by columndate, so author2 has a column more recent than author3 and one less recent, so author3 is sandwiched between. I'd like to be able to have it so that the author 'group' is only shown once. I'd prefer it to be outputted like:

Author
Column1
Column2

Author2
Column1
Column2

Author3
Column1
Column2

If anyone could help that would be great.

[coreyp_1]

I cannot think (or find) any way to do what you are wanting to do, using only one query.

The only option I can think of is to cycle through the author id's, and for each id, do a query for the most recent column date.

I'll see if there's anything else I can dig up...

[tekky]

if you cant do it with SQL can do it simply with PHP

as you loop through your results do this:

$a=array(); // assign array for checking authors, can be assigned anywhere before the loop
$author = $row["authorname"]; //put this after your fetch_array inside the loop
......//whatever other code you have before you process the columns
if (!$a[$author]) //if we havent see this author before... set its array bit, and process it
{
     $a[$author] = 1;
     //your code for the initial 1 time column display here
}
....//whatever other code you have after you process the columns

hope this helps...