Drop down list from database sort order alphanumeric

Question

I am using some php to populate a dropdown list from my database. But I cant seem to figure out how to get the sort order of the list alphanumeric.

Here is my code. Its probably a bit of a mess im not a coder im only learning the ropes now, so please take it easy on me.

<label>Category:</label>
<select class="form-control" name="channel_category" id='category_name' 
               Placeholder="Category" onchange="show_category()">

<?php
    $qry="select * from category where parent_cat IS NOT NULL order by 
          category_id ASC";

    $res=mysqli_query($con,$qry) or die(mysqli_error($con));
    while ($row = $res->fetch_assoc()) 
    {
?>
<option value="<?php echo $row['category_name'] ?>">
    <?php echo $row['category_name'] ?>
</option>
<?php 
    } 
?>
</select>

Answer 1

In the query you're using to get the data for this list, you have explicitly told it to sort the data by category_id with this:

order by category_id ASC

If you want it to be sorted by category_name instead, change it to

order by category_name

ASC is the default sort direction and can be omitted. You can check the MySQL documentation for more details on ORDER BY .

Answer 2

Change

select * from category where parent_cat IS NOT NULL order by category_id ASC

to

SELECT * FROM category WHERE parent_cat IS NOT NULL ORDER BY category_name ASC