[RESOLVED] Is this possible?

[kernel-stack]

I've got this page:

<?php 
require_once('scripts/mysql.php');

$qry_cat = "SELECT DISTINCT category FROM companies";
$categories = mysql_query($qry_cat) or die(mysql_error());	
?>

<div id="searchead">
  <div class="searcheadleft">
    <p><a href="#" onmouseover="rollover('button1')" onmouseout="rollout('button1')"><img src="layout/button1.png" name="button1" alt="" height="50" border="0" /></a></p>
    <p style="margin-left:2px; margin-top:5px;"></p>
    <ul class="menu_class">
      <li>
        <p><a href="#"><img src="layout/inside/catbut.png" width="158" height="30" alt="" border="0" /></a></p>
      </li>
      <li>
        <ul class="the_menu">
            <?php //fetch categories from database
			while($row = mysql_fetch_array($categories, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
   				printf('<li><a href="companies.php?srtby=%s">%s</a></li>', 
				$row['category'], $row['category']);
			}
   			?>
        </ul>
      </li>
    </ul>
  </div>
  <div class="searcheadcenter">
    <p style="margin-left:7px;"><img src="layout/logo.png" width="211" height="85" alt="" /></p>
    <p style="margin-bottom:15px;"><img src="layout/nocredit.png" width="232" height="19" alt="" /></p>
    <p style="margin-left:5px;"><a href="#" onmouseover="rollover('cardbutton')" onmouseout="rollout('cardbutton')"><img src="layout/cardbutton.png" name="cardbutton" width="216" height="60" alt="" border="0" /></a></p>
  </div>
  <div style="clear:both;"></div>
  <div class="searcheadright">
    <p><a href="#" onmouseover="rollover('recommend')" onmouseout="rollout('recommend')"><img src="layout/recommend.png" name="recommend" height="30" alt="" border="0" /></a></p>
  </div>
</div>

As it is right now, it just prints out categories from a table and makes them links for use in another page where the results are sorted and printed out using $_GET.

The problem is that, as it is right now, I can't use complex category descriptions (with spaces or non-latin characters) as it will mess up the GET request.

Is it possible to have two columns linked in the database, one for the complex category description and one for a simplified description and link those two together or should I just skip that and manually code the links?

So, basically, the while loop prints out category_full_desc which links to companies.php?srtby=companies_desc.

[bradgrafelman]

Don't you have some sort of unique identifier in the DB (e.g. an AUTO_INCREMENT column) to identify rows? If so, use that value. If not, create one and use that value.

[kernel-stack]

bradgrafelman;10969858 wrote:

Don't you have some sort of unique identifier in the DB (e.g. an AUTO_INCREMENT column) to identify rows? If so, use that value. If not, create one and use that value.

Thanks. I had a generic id with AUTO_INCREMENT which I could use. Actually, I decided to split the database into two tables, one hosting only the categories with the descriptions and a unique id (used cat_id in my case) and the other hosting the companies with a linked cat_id column.

I suppose that is a better solution since I can use joins to display the things I want like:

"SELECT * FROM companies LEFT JOIN categories ON (companies.cat_id = categories.cat_id) WHERE category='$sort' ORDER BY company ASC";

What do you think?