Question

I have a MySql table and I want to list things by type and insert headers. What type of query would I use?

From This:

| Fluffy   | Harold | cat        | f    | 1993-02-04 | NULL       |
| Claws    | Gwen   | cat        | m    | 1994-03-17 | NULL       |
| Buffy    | Harold | dog        | f    | 1989-05-13 | NULL       |
| Fang     | Benny  | dog        | m    | 1990-08-27 | NULL       |
| Bowser   | Diane  | dog        | m    | 1979-08-31 | 1995-07-29 |
| Chirpy   | Gwen   | bird       | f    | 1998-09-11 | NULL       |
| Whistler | Gwen   | bird       | f    | 1997-12-09 | NULL       |
| Slim     | Benny  | snake      | m    | 1996-04-29 | NULL       |
| Dalli    | Alli   | canine     | m    | 2001-12-20 | NULL       |
| Tara     | David  | canine     | f    | 2002-05-17 | NULL       |
| Mimi     | Alli   | guinea pig | m    | 2004-05-17 | NULL       |

To this:

<h2>Cat</h2>

<ul>
<li>Fluffy</li>
<li>Claws</li>
</ul>

<h2>Dog</h2>

<li>Buffy</li>
<li>Fang</li>
<li>Bowser</li>
</ul>

etc.

Answer 1

Don’t try to do all of this with SQL (just do a standard select query), use PHP to group the result, then present it. The best way to do this would be to have an object that will do the grouping for you, as you’ll probably need it more than once. For example, your class could look something like this:

<?php
class Arrays
{
    public static function group($array,$key)
    {
        if(NULL == $array)
            return NULL;

        $grouped = NULL;

        foreach($array as $item)
        {
            $grouped[$item[$key]][] = $item;
        }

        return $grouped;
    }
}
?>

And your use case could be something like:

<?php
$result = ...; // The result of your database query.

$grouped_by_type = Arrays::group($result,"type");

foreach($grouped_by_type as $type => $group)
{
    echo "<h2>".ucwords($type)."</h2>";
    echo "<ul>";

    foreach($group as $animal)
    {
        echo "<li>".$animal['first_name']."</li>"; // Assumes the query brought back first_name...
    }

    echo "</ul>";
}
?>