PHP - Order a list of database elements - php

Question

I am displaying a list of items based on a database. The order of the items is by ProductID.
When I add an item to the database, it is automatically assigned a ProductID.
However, I would like to be able to either
a) sort the list alphabetically by name, without changing the ProductID in the database or
b) add another column to the database called, for example: Rank, and have this list display the list by Rank, rather than by ProductID.
Here is my code. Any help in re-writing this section of the code to accomplish either a) or b) would be very helpful!
PS: I'm a little familiar with PHP and databases, but I am by no means an experienced coder.
$category = array_search(strtolower('upright'), $CFG["Category"]);
$product2 = new ProductData();
$where2 = sprintf(" WHERE CategoryID=%d ORDER BY ProductID DESC", $category);
$rows2 = $product2->GetRows($where2);
$count2 = count($rows2);
$line_count2 = 4;
$total_lines2 = ceil($count2/$line_count2);
// Photo
$photo5 = new PhotoData();
$thumb_array5 = array();
$count3 = count($rows2);
for ( $i = 0; $i < $count3; $i++ )
{
$ret = $photo5->Query($rows2[$i]["ProductID"]);
if ( $ret != 0 )
{
continue;
}
$thumb_array5[$photo5->Get("ProductID")] = $photo5->Get("Photo1");
}

Answer 1

Your SELECT query is not shown which I assume is coming from your ProductData() class. If you could change the source of your ProductData() that includes ranking, you could use a variable for ranking, like:
SELECT
#Ranking := #Ranking + 1 AS Rank,
productID,
product_name
FROM yourTable t, (SELECT #Ranking := 0) r
ORDER BY product_name;
Otherwise you could do it in your Php instead:
First change the ORRDER BY to your product name instead of product id:
$category = array_search(strtolower('upright'), $CFG["Category"]);
$product2 = new ProductData();
$where2 = sprintf(" WHERE CategoryID=%d ORDER BY Product_Name", $category);
Then in your php use a variable to do the ranking:
$count3 = count($rows2);
echo "<table><tr><th>Ranking</th><th>Product Name</th><th>Product Name</th></tr>";
for ( $rank = 0; $rank < $count3; $rank++ )
{
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>$rank+1</td><td>".$rows2[$rank]["Product_name"]."</td><td><img src='".$photo5->Get("Photo1")."'></td>"
echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";