Produce php variable while looping through query and in certain order - php

Question

I have a while fetch_assoc that produces and xml file for me. It works fine but now i need to add another variable to it.
Here is the working query
$sql3 = "SELECT name, class FROM tbl_user_tmp where user = '$user' order by name";
if(!$result3 = $mysqli->query($sql3)){
die('There was an error running the query [' . $mysqli->error . ']');
}
while($row2 = $result2->fetch_assoc()){
if(!isset($previousRow2) || !isset($previousRow2["category"]) || $previousRow2["category"] != $row2["category"])
{
$xml2 .= "\r\n";
$xml2 .= "<category title=\"" . $row2["category"] . "\" />\r\n";
}
$xml2 .= " <item drawable=\"";
$xml2 .= $row2["name"];
$xml2 .= "\" />";
$xml2 .= "\r\n";
$previousRow2 = $row2;
}
Now, what i need to do is take a array, and based on it,order what titles get done first.
This is how the array looks
$cat_order[]
Games,Apps,Google,Misc,System

Answer 1

You can order this in the query:
<?php
//Dynamic solution, build the SQL with a loop:
$cat_order = array("Games", "Apps", "Google");
$caseStr = "";
foreach($cat_order as $index => $value)
$caseStr .= sprintf("WHEN '%s' THEN %d ", $value, $index+1);
$sql3 = "
SELECT name, class
FROM tbl_user_tmp where user = '$user'
ORDER BY CASE name" . $caseStr . " END";
?>

Answer 2

Sorry to ask then answer but here is how i did it
$cat_name = $_POST['cat'];
foreach($cat_name as $k=>$val)
{
$cat_order[] = $val;
}
debug_to_console($cat_order);
$sql2 = "SELECT distinct category, name FROM tbl_user_tmp where user = '$user' and category is not null and category <> '' order by field (category,";
$size = count($cat_name);
foreach($cat_name as $k=>$val)
{
$sql2 .= "'$val'";
if($size > $k+1) $sql2 .=',';
}
$sql2 .= ")";
debug_to_console($sql2);