Sort Ascending - Descending

[F_Danials]

Hiya,

I have the following code, that displays information from a database, and displays it within a table. How do I enable the data to be sorted (Ascending & Descending), via clicking on the table headings?

mysql_select_db("db", $con);

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM staff");

echo "<table border='1'>
<tr>
<th>First Name</th>
<th>Last Name</th>
<th>Age</th>
</tr>";

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
  echo "<tr>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['firstName'] . "</td>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['lastName'] . "</td>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['age'] . "</td>";
  echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";

mysql_close($con);
?>

[Himegoto]

I would change your query into a variable then make the headings links.

something like:

<?php
mysql_select_db("db", $con);

if (isset($_GET['direction']) && $_GET['direction'] == "DESC"){
   $direction = "DESC";
   $opposite = "ASC";
} else {
   $direction = "ASC";
   $opposite = "DESC";
}

if (isset($_GET['orderby'])){
   $orderby = $_GET['orderby'];
} else {
   $orderby = "first_name";
}

$query = "SELECT * FROM staff ORDER BY {$orderby} {$direction}";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die ("Database Read Error: " . mysql_error());

echo "<table border='1'>
<tr>

<th><a href=\"page.php?orderby=first_name&direction={$opposite}\">First Name</a></th>

<th><a href=\"same except last_name\">Last Name</a></th>
<th><a href=\"age\">Age<a/></th>
</tr>";

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
  echo "<tr>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['firstName'] . "</td>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['lastName'] . "</td>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['age'] . "</td>";
  echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";

mysql_close($con);
?>

There is probably something more elegant, but that is what I have done in the past and been successful. You probably wouldn't want to use the code exactly as I wrote 1)Because I didn't write out all the proper urls and 2)terrible mysql security. But hopefully this will help steer you in the direction you wanted.