PHP Order in alphabetical order - php

Question

I'm trying to make a simple alphabetical list to order items in my database. The thing I can't figure out is how to actually list it.
I would like it to be the same format as you have on miniclip.com
Here's an image
I looked around, but couldnt find an answer really.
(I would like it to finish even at the end of each vertical column, except the last one for sure)
Any help would be welcome!

Answer 1

In MySQL:
SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY name ASC
In PHP:
$fruits = array("lemon", "orange", "banana", "apple");
sort($fruits);
foreach ($fruits as $key => $val) {
echo "fruits[" . $key . "] = " . $val . "\n";
}
fruits[0] = apple
fruits[1] = banana
fruits[2] = lemon
fruits[3] = orange

Answer 2

Assuming that your result set already is sorted by using the ORDER BY clause, to group the results by their first character you just need to remember the first character of the previous entry and print out the first character of the current entry if they are different. So:
$prevLabel = null;
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
$currLabel = strtoupper(substr($row['name'], 0, 1));
if ($currLabel !== $prevLabel) {
echo $currLabel;
$prevLabel = $currLabel;
}
echo $row['name'];
}
This will print the first character as a label for each group that’s members have the same first character.

Answer 3

He doesn't seem to have an issue with the storting, but doing the column format and headers for each new letter.
Suppose $arr contains your alphabetically sorted list with numeric keys. each element has indexes 'name' and 'link'. This should be pretty safe assumption for data from a SQL query.
$firstLetter = -1;
$desiredColumns = 4; //you can change this!
$columnCount = (count($arr)+27)/$desiredColumns+1;
echo "<table><tr><td>";
foreach($arr as $key => $cur)
{
if ($key != 0 && $key % desiredColumns == 0) echo "</td><td>";
if ($cur['name'][0] !== $firstLetter)
{
echo "<strong>$firstLetter</strong> <br />"; $firstLetter = $cur['name'][0];
}
echo "".$cur['name']."<br />";
}
echo "</td><tr></table>";
You'll have to treat numbers as a special case, but this is the idea. If you are using a template engine there are obviously better ways of doing this, but I figure you would have mentioned that. This is a rough sketch, making pretty HTML isn't my thing.
--Query-- get table into $arr. I can't see your tables obviously, Im making assumptions if names nad stuff so you'll need to verify or change them
$sql = "SELECT * FROM table T ORDER BY name";
$conn = //you should have this
$res = mysql_query($sql, $conn);
$arr = array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_assc($res)
$arr[] = $row;
// start above code here. This isn't safe for empty query responses or other error but it works

Answer 4

I presume you're using MySQL (or another SQL) database, in which case you should simply retrieve the data in the required order using a SORT BY clause on the lookup SELECT. (Sorting this PHP is trivial via the sort function, but it makes sense to get the database to do this - that's pretty much what it's for.)
In terms of balancing the output of each of the columns, you could get a COUNT of the required rows in your database (or simply use the count of the resulting PHP array of data) and use this to ensure that the output is balanced.
As a final thought, if this is going to be output on a per-page basis, I'd highly recommend generating it into a static file when the structure changes and simply including this static file as a part of the output - generating this on the fly is needlessly resource inefficient.

Answer 5

The mysql option mentioned above is definitely the best bet. If the data comes out of the DM in order, that's the simplest way to go.
Your next option might be to look at the
asort and ksort functions in PHP to find the exact one you're looking for.
http://www.php.net/manual/en/array.sorting.php
How are you pulling the data?
<?php
$result = mysql_query("SELECT titles FROM gamelist ORDER BY title ASC");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
echo "{$result['title']}<br/>";
}
?>

Answer 6

There are two ways to do it.
You could use your database and use the 'order' clause to pull them by a specific field alphabetically.
You could also use either a key sort or value sort on a PHP array.
The PHP functions are sort($array) and ksort($array).
http://php.net/manual/en/function.sort.php
http://php.net/manual/en/function.ksort.php
<?php
$list = $your_list_array_from_database
//if you need info on how to do this, just let me know
sort($list);
foreach($list as $item) {
echo $item;
}
?>

Answer 7

I found this post and had the same problem. I used the code below to output a list by category name with a header equal to the first letter. In my database table (category) I have name and category_letter. So, name = football and category_list = 'F'.
<section>
<?php
try {
$cats_sql = $dbo->prepare("SELECT name, category_list, FROM category WHERE category_list REGEXP '^[A-Z#]' GROUP BY category_list ASC");
$cats_sql->execute();
$results_cats = $cats_sql->fetchAll();
} catch(PDOException $e) {
include('basehttp/error');
}
$array_cats = $results_cats;
if(is_array($array_cats)) {
foreach($array_cats as $row_cats) {
$cat_var = $row_cats[category_list]; // Each Category list title
?>
<aside>
<h1><a name=""><? echo $cat_var ?></a></h1>
<?php
try {
$search_sql = $dbo->prepare("SELECT name, category_list FROM category WHERE category_list=:cat_var ORDER BY name ASC"); // Pulling a list of names for the category list
$search_sql->bindParam(":cat_var",$cat_var,PDO::PARAM_STR);
$search_sql->execute();
$results_search = $search_sql->fetchAll();
} catch(PDOException $e) {
include('basehttp/error');
}
$array_search = $results_search;
if(is_array($array_search)) { // Output list of names which match category
foreach($array_search as $row_search) {
?>
<h2><?php echo $row_search[name]; ?></h2>
<br class="clear">
<?php
}
}
?>
</aside>
<br class="clear">
<?php
}
}
?>
</section>

Answer 8

Its actually Simple....I did similar thing for my project once. I had to pull out all music albums name and categorize them in alphabetical order.
In my table, "album_name" is the column where names are stored.
$sql= "select * from album_table order by album_name ASC";
$temp_char= ""; // temporary variable, initially blank;
using while loop, iterate through records;
while($row= $rs->fetch_assoc())
{
$album_name= $row['album_name'];
$first_char_of_albm= $album_name[0]; // this will store first alphabet;
$first_char_of_albm= strtoupper($first_char_of_albm); // make uppercase or lower as per your needs
if($temp_char!=$first_char_of_albm)
{
echo $first_char_of_albm;
$temp_char= $first_char_of_albm; // update $temp_char variable
}
}
That's it....

Answer 9

I am posting my answer to this old question for 3 reasons:
You don't always get to write your queries to MySQL or another DBMS, as with a web service / API. None of the other answers address PHP sorting without query manipulation, while also addressing the vertical alphabetical sort
Sometimes you have to deal with associative arrays, and only a couple other answers deal with assoc. arrays. BTW, my answer will work for both associative and indexed arrays.
I didn't want an overly complex solution.
Actually, the solution I came up with was pretty simple--use multiple tags with style="float:left", inside of a giant table. While I was sceptical that having multiple tbody tags in a single table would pass HTML validation, it in fact did pass without errors.
Some things to note:
$numCols is your desired number of columns.
Since we are floating items, you may need to set the width and min-width of parent elements and/or add some <br style="clear: both" />, based on your situation.
for alternative sorting methods, see http://php.net/manual/en/array.sorting.php
Here's my full answer:
function sortVertically( $data = array() )
{
/* PREPARE data for printing */
ksort( $data ); // Sort array by key.
$numCols = 4; // Desired number of columns
$numCells = is_array($data) ? count($data) : 1 ;
$numRows = ceil($numCells / $numCols);
$extraCells = $numCells % $numCols; // Store num of tbody's with extra cell
$i = 0; // iterator
$cCell = 0; // num of Cells printed
$output = NULL; // initialize
/* START table printing */
$output .= '<div>';
$output .= '<table>';
foreach( $data as $key => $value )
{
if( $i % $numRows === 0 ) // Start a new tbody
{
if( $i !== 0 ) // Close prev tbody
{
$extraCells--;
if ($extraCells === 0 )
{
$numRows--; // No more tbody's with an extra cell
$extraCells--; // Avoid re-reducing numRows
}
$output .= '</tbody>';
}
$output .= '<tbody style="float: left;">';
$i = 0; // Reset iterator to 0
}
$output .= '<tr>';
$output .= '<th>'.$key.'</th>';
$output .= '<td>'.$value.'</td>';
$output .= '</tr>';
$cCell++; // increase cells printed count
if($cCell == $numCells){ // last cell, close tbody
$output .= '</tbody>';
}
$i++;
}
$output .= '</table>';
$output .= '</div>';
return $output;
}
I hope that this code will be useful to you all.