Text Database problem

Anon

Hi all, i'm rather new to PHP so i wondered if sb. can help me out. Here is the main idea:

I've got a file filled with 3 strings and variables. the strings look lik this:

name:"peter"
account:"see"
access:"private"
<br>
name:"john"
account:"man"
access:"admin"
<br>
name:"aghast"
account:"view"
access:"none"
<br>
...
...

...

i want to sort these values alphabetacialy either by name or by account or by access.
please help and thanks!

toma42

Change your text file database to use XML. You can then use the xmldom to sort your file.

Anon

I suggest you put you text fields directly in a database, if you have access to such.

Here is the SQL to set up your table:

CREATE TABLE users (
id int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
name varchar(40) NOT NULL,
account varchar(12) NOT NULL,
access varchar(12) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

You can then insert your table data from an html form via (assuming you are using MySQL):

<?php
$hostname="localhost";
$dbusername="myname";
$dbpassword="mypass";
$database="mydatabasename";

mysql_connect($hostname,$dbusername,$dbpassword) or die("Could not connect to the database");
@mysql_select_db($database) or die("Could not select the appropriate database");

$insert_statement="INSERT INTO users VALUES (null,'$name','$account','$access')"; /This assumes you named three text fields 'name','account', and 'access' in the calling form /
$insert_query=mysql_query($insert_statement) or die("Could not perform the insert query:<br><br>$insert_statement");
?>

Then to get your info and reorder it as you want (let's call this script display.php):

<?php

// Connect to database as above

if(!isset($col)){ / Set default column by which to order your info /
$col="name";
}

if(!isset($order)){ / Set default order for your info /
$order="ASC";
}

/ Set new column order /

($order=="ASC")?($order_new=="DESC")🙁$order_new=="ASC");

$user_query="SELECT name,account,access FROM users ORDER BY $col $order";
$user_result=mysql_query($user_query);
while(list($name,$account,$access)=mysql_fetch_row($user_result)){
$table_rows.="<tr><td>$name</td><td>$account</td><td>$access</td></tr>";
}
?>

<head><title>My account info</title></head>
<body>
<table>
"<tr><td><a href="display.php?col=name&order=<?php echo"$order_new";?>">name</a></td><td><a href="display.php?col=account&order=<?php echo"$order_new";?>">$account</a></td><td><a href="display.php?col=access&order=<?php echo"$order_new";?>">$access</a></td></tr>
<?php echo"$table_rows";?>
</table>
</body>

Now you can simply click on the column header to order by that column's info and click on the same column header again to reverse the order.

Hope this helps.