display drop down menu with fetched field data

oaskedal

Hello!

I'm trying to make a category drop down menu made from a mysql database fieldname called 'category'. The table is called 'links'
I need to know how I can do the following:

1) Fetch data from the field named 'category' into a html drop-down menu.
2) Each category should only appear once in the drop-down.
3) The list should appear in alphabetic order.

here is what I got so far, but this doesn't work .... please help 😕

$sql = "SELECT * FROM links";


$result=mysql_query($sql, $connection);
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);

if(mysql_num_rows($result)==0) {
echo "No data available";
}
else {
for($i=0;$i<mysql_num_rows($result);$i++) {
$row=mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
echo"<option>{$row['category']}</option>";
}
}

jrolands

do you get an error, and if so what does it say?
as for the sorting add ORDER BY category DESC at the end of the query

jrolands

instead of using a for loop and setting $i and all that crap, use a while loop.

while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {}

this will run until it reaches the end of the array..

try this on for size:

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM links ORDER BY category DESC");
if (!$result) {
	echo"Something went wrong:".mysql_error();
} else {
	if(mysql_num_rows($result)==0) {
		echo "No data available";
	} else {
		while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
			echo"<option>".$row['category']."</option>";
		}
	}
}

oaskedal

thanks! Now it works. Just one thing though... How can I make each category appear only once in the drop down? Ex. categorynames should not appear like:
- Medialinks
- Medialinks
- Medialinks
- News
- News
- TV
- TV
..
..

but like this:

Medialinks
News
TV
..
..

NogDog

Do a "SELECT DISTINCT . . . ".

Also, if that query is only being used to populate those categories, I would just select that field instead of every field in the table via the "*".

SELECT DISTINCT category FROM links ORDER BY category ASC

oaskedal

thank you very much! No it works the way it should
:-)