Question

Here is what my table looks like: http://jsfiddle.net/Draven/kGtx7/14/

Each header cell is clickable to be able to sort by that field and by ASC / DESC.
I want to be able to store that sorting option somewhere, so it get’s remembered, but am not sure the best way to do that.

Here are the options I was thinking…

1. Making sort_field and sort_order fields in the users table
2. Making a new table that has their userid along with sort_field, and sort_order fields
3. Or Cookies, but I assume this is the worst option

Answer 1

I don’t think we are clear on what you want, but I think you are wanting something like this:

Step 1: Run a query than will populate the sorting values into 2 session variables.
Step 2: Do something like this code.

$sortHeadClicked = $_SESSION['headClicked']
$sortReturnDirection = $_SESSION['returnDirection']

//TODO: validate data before query

if ($result = $mysqli->query("SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY $sortHeadClicked $sortReturnDirection)) 
{
    //TODO: Get results
}

Step 3: Smile like your awesome

Alternatively, you could use some sort of sub select query.

NOTE: This is the simplistic logic so they won’t be remember with this example. However, you can put the gets into session variables if you only want them to be remember temporarily

However, if you want these remembered permanently, you need two columns in your user’s table where you would either puts them into sessions or use a subselect query