search query order by asc or desc

Question

Hi what's the best way to do a 'order by' from a query without executing a query for another time? Lets say I have a search query when I have to find names or surnames using a form ,an example :

     //Array for storing WHERE part of query
   $where=array();  

   if(!empty($name)) AND !empty($surname)){
         $where[]="Name LIKE '%$name%'" .
            "AND Surname LIKE '%$surname%'";
   }
   elseif(!empty($name)){
        $where[]="Name LIKE '%$name%'";
   }
   elseif(!empty($surname)){
       $where[]="Surname LIKE '%$surname%'";
   }

   $where = implode(' AND ', $where);

   $sql="SELECT Name,Surname FROM TABLE WHERE $where ORDER BY Name DESC";

   $res = mysql_query($sql);

   while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($res, MYSQL_NUM)) {
           $name    = $row[0];
           $surname    = $row[1];
           echo"$name";
           echo"$surname";


    }

How can I display Name or Surname in ASC mode(ORDER BY Name ASC) after my search"Name LIKE %surname%",without executing again the SQL query? I want for example when I search for a name containing "ich"word to have a list in this way:

  MICHAEL
  PICHAEL
  XICHAEL
    => the ASC mode
  XICHAEL
  PICHAEL
  MICHAEL
   => the DESC mode

Answer 1

I really don't think I'm understanding your question correctly, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess you just want to order by two different columns?

 $sql="SELECT Name,Surname FROM TABLE WHERE $where ORDER BY Name DESC, Surname ASC";

by the way you had an extra " in your query string

Also, you may want to look into using mysql_fetch_assoc instead of mysql_fetch_array

This is just me nitpicking now ... but instead of using:

    echo"$name";
    echo"$surname";

You can just write:

echo $name;
echo $surname;

Answer 2

Arr you talking about reversing the order of an array like this?

<?php

  //Array for storing WHERE part of query
   $where=array();  

   if(!empty($name) && !empty($surname)){
         $where[]="Name LIKE '%$name%'" .
            "AND Surname LIKE '%$surname%'";
   }
   elseif(!empty($name)){
        $where[]="Name LIKE '%$name%'";
   }
   elseif(!empty($surname)){
       $where[]="Surname LIKE '%$surname%'";
   }

   $where = implode(' AND ', $where);

   $sql="SELECT Name,Surname FROM TABLE WHERE $where ORDER BY Name";

   $res = mysql_query($sql);

    $names = array();
    $surnames = array();
    $wholeNames = array();

    $x='0';
   while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($res)) {

           if(!empty($row['Name'])){
                $names[$x] = $row['Name'];
           }
           if(!empty($row['Surname'])){
                $surnames[$x] = $row['Surname'];
           }

           if(!empty($row['Name'])&&!empty($row['Surname'])){
             $wholeNames[$x] = $row['Name'].' '.$row['Surname'];
           }
          $x++; 
    }
print "<pre>\n";
print_r ($names);
print_r ($surnames);
print_r ($wholeNames);
print "</pre>\n";

$reversed_names=array_reverse($names);
$reversed_surnames=array_reverse($surnames);
$reversed_wholeNames=array_reverse($wholeNames);

print "<pre>\n";
print_r ($reversed_names);
print_r ($reversed_surnames);
print_r ($reversed_wholeNames);
print "</pre>\n";


?>

Something to watch out for, if you're using LIKE with the wildcards a search for "Art" would match Bart, Arthur, carter, and any other word with "Art" in it.