Temporarily Store, Then Sort and Print

PHPRookie

Each record in my mysql event database can have as many as seven dates and corresponding times in it.
Record Format: Event Location, Event Type, Date1, Date2, Date3, Date4, Date5, Date6, Date7
Record #1: Joe's,Barbecue,3/1/04 - 5:00 pm,3/2/04 - 8:00 pm,3/3/04 - 2:00 pm, 3/4/04 - 4:00 pm,3/5/04 - 1:00 pm,3/6/04 - 4:00 pm,3/7/04 - 9:00 pm
Record #2: Rob's,Party,3/1/04 - 5:00 pm,3/2/04 - 8:00 pm,3/3/04 - 2:00 pm, 3/4/04 - 4:00 pm,3/5/04 - 1:00 pm,3/6/04 - 4:00 pm,3/7/04 - 9:00 pm
Record #3: Brad's,Barbecue,2/29/04 - 3:00 pm, 3/1/04 - 8:00 pm,3/2/04 - 2:00 pm, 3/3/04 - 8:00 pm,3/4/04 - 11:00 am, 3/5/04 - 2:00 pm,3/6/04 - 7:30 pm
When I run my php program to pull events within, for example, a five day date range (e.g. 2/26/04 through 3/1/04) each record is examined seven times for each day in my date range. After the first date field in each of the records is examined, the records for that day in the date range are printed out. The results are ordered by Event Type within a date in the date range. The three sample records above would yield:
02/26/04 - No Records
02/27/04 - No Records
02/28/04 - No Records
02/29/04:
Barbecue , Brad's, 3:00 pm
03/01/04:
Barbecue, Joe's, 5:00 pm;
Party, Rob's, 5:00 pm;
Barbecue, Brad's, 8:00 pm
If the 3/1/04 date for Brad's Barbecue were in the first date field of the record, then the results for 03/01/04 would show:
Barbecue, Joe's, 5:00 pm;
Barbecue, Brad's, 8:00 pm;
Party, Rob's, 5:00 pm
Because the 3/1/04 date is in the second date field of Brad's record, it is printed out after Rob's party. Is there a way for me to temporarily store all the records pulled from the database for a particular date in the date range, and then print them out after sorting them by event type.

mmilano

there may be a way by putting all that data into arrays, but i would save myself a lot of headache and re-structure your datbase.

something like this:

Table Events:
  event_id ( primary key, auto increment )
  event_name
  event_type

Table Dates:
  event_id
  event_date

then you can just run a select from the dates table for the specific range and join it with the events table by the event_id to get your event info.

mmilano

p.s. put some spaces between yoru data and your sentences when you post .. that is difficult to read!! 😃