Major Help Needed Plz...

tommychi

Here's the thing. I have a table with the fields Name, HP, MP, AP Gil. The information that goes in this table is obtained from a Mysql database. Above this table i have the letters from A - Z pertaining to the names. E.g. If "A" is chosen, it would display only the items that are in the group "A". Now the problem is:

1) I want it so when the user chooses to sort by Name, HP, MP, AP or Gil (whichever option they choose), the items in the table get sorted in the matter that the user chose. E.G. If the use chose to sort by "Name" it would sort everything in the table by Name. If user chose to sort by "HP" it would sort everything in the table by HP and so forth.

2) I want it so that when the user chooses a letter (A - Z), it only displays the items in the table pertaining to that letter. So, if user chose the letter "A", it would display only the items that are in the group "A". (There is a "group_letter" field in my database table btw). If user chose "B" it would display only "B" items and so forth. BUT, i want it so that even if it displayed the items that only pertained to that group, the sorting option would still be available and the user would be able to sort this time, the new items that show up pertaining to the letter chosen. If you are confused at this point, ill give you an example.
User chooses to view items by the letter "B". Table displays all items that are in group_letter B. The user also wants to sort by "name, hp, mp, ap or gil" these items that are displayed in the group_letter B.

So far, i have been able to create this coding:

<?php

if ( $letter ) {
$query = "SELECT * FROM statistics WHERE group_letter = '$letter'";
} else {
$query = "SELECT * FROM statistics ORDER BY id";
}

$result = mysql_query( $query ) or die ( "Query failed" );

?>

<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" valign="top">
<tr>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=#">#</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=a">A</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=b">B</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=c">C</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=d">D</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=e">E</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=f">F</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=g">G</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=h">H</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=i">I</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=j">J</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=k">K</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=l">L</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=m">M</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=n">N</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=o">O</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=p">P</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=q">Q</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=r">R</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=s">S</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=t">T</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=u">U</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=v">V</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=w">W</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=x">X</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=y">Y</a></td>
<td><font class="letter"><a href="?letter=z">Z</a></td>
</tr></table>


<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" valign="top"><tr><td height="10"></td></tr></table>


<table bgcolor="666666" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" valign="top">
<tr>
<td bgcolor="AEB09A" width="20%"><font class="main"><b>Name<a></b></td>
<td bgcolor="AEB09A" width="20%"><font class="main"><b>HP<a></b></td>
<td bgcolor="AEB09A" width="20%"><font class="main"><b>MP<a></b></td>
<td bgcolor="AEB09A" width="20%"><font class="main"><b>AP<a></b></td>
<td bgcolor="AEB09A" width="20%"><font class="main"><b>Gil<a></b></td>
</tr>


<?php
    $bestiary = mysql_fetch_array( $result );     

    echo "<td><font class='main'>".$bestiary['name']."</td>";
    echo "<td><font class='main'>".$bestiary['hp']."</td>";
    echo "<td><font class='main'>".$bestiary['mp']."</td>";
    echo "<td><font class='main'>".$bestiary['ap']."</td>";
    echo "<td><font class='main'>".$bestiary['gil']."</td>\n";
    echo "</tr>\n";
}
echo "</table>\n";

?>

This so far has allowed the displaying by group_letter to work. However, i cannot seem to figure out how to get it to sort successfully at this stage. If anyone can help me... it'll be big big big help and very much appreciated. Thanks!

steadyguy

If I understand you correctly, you can accomplish this with SQL:

SELECT *
FROM statistics
WHERE group_letter = '$letter'
ORDER BY '$order';

On an unrelated note ... you could take out the <font> tags, and put the class="whatever" into the <td> tags ... would make the file smaller, and easier to read, too. Alternatively, you could change the CSS rule .letter { ... } to table.letter td { ...}, add class="letter" to the letter table <table> tag, and then remove both the <font> tags and the class="letter". You could do a similar thing to for the 'main' table. I realize this is unsolicted help, so if you don't want it ... feel free to throw it out. 😃

tommychi

hmm thanks alot for the help. Now it seems to display by group_letter correctly as well as sort accordingly while displaying it by group_letter. However, the only thing i need now is, if i were to display all of the items in the table, how would i sort it then?

would i need some sort of 'if' statements or something like that?

Also, what would be the best way to link this so it is efficient? Such as how would i link the letters and also link it so it sorts?

Once again, any help would be appreciated.

steadyguy

You've already got an if/else statement, and a query that will run if sort order is not given. Just change the first few lines to something like this:

if ($order && $letter) {
    // both a sort order and a letter group are specified
    $query = "SELECT * FROM statistics WHERE group_letter='$letter' ORDER BY '$order'";
}
elseif ($letter) {
     //no sort order is specified, but a letter group is
    $query = "SELECT * FROM statistics WHERE group_letter='$letter'";
}
else {
    //neither are given
    $query = "SELECT * FROM statistics ORDER BY id";
}

As for links ... you can use a for loop to print out each table cell, and the appropriate links and text