Displaying Data from Database

[_Darkman]

Hello Everybody,

I know the basics of displaying data from mysql database. Now i need some advanced help.

Let me explain with an example:

I have 4 rows and 1 column in my table.

1st row : "rat, cat, elephant"
2nd row : "cat, lion, tiger"
3rd row : "elephant, rat, lion"
4th row : "cat, tiger, bear"

I have these data. (i.e) few words separated by comma. Some words repeat.

Now i want to display information from this table as :
rat
cat
elephant
lion
tiger
bear

(i.e) I want to display all the names but without repetition. How do i do it ?

Please Help.

Thanks,

[Piranha]

You should normalize the database, then all these things is much more easy. As it is now you don't have it in first normal form, that basically says that you should not repeat data in the same table. So both the examples below are wrong:

[b]animals[/b]
rat, cat, elephant

[b]animal1     animal2       animal3[/b]
rat         cat           elephant

In the first example you have the animals in the same column, and a column should contain only one value. In the second example you have the animals in different columns, but you should not have the same information in more than one column.

What you need to do is to break up your table into 3 different tables:

[b]table collection[/b]
id

[b]table animals[/b]
id
name

[b]table collection_animals[/b]
collectionid references collection(id)
animalsid references animals(id)