How to sort rows of HTML table that are called from MySQL

user_242181 0
Viewed 140861

I know it's such a basic thing, but a Google search hasn't shown me how to re-sort the rows after clicking the th links.

I've got this:

<table border="1">
  <tr>
    <th>Type:</th>
    <th>Description:</th>
    <th>Recorded Date:</th>
    <th>Added Date:</th>
  </tr>

<?php 
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
    ?>
    <tr>
        <td><?php echo $row['type'] ?></td>
        <td><?php echo $row['description'] ?></td>
        <td><?php echo $row['recorded_date'] ?></td>
        <td><?php echo $row['added_date'] ?></td>
    </tr>
    <br /> 


  <?php 
}
mysql_close();
?>
</table>

I need to be able to click type and sort alphabetically, and click on either Recorded Date or Added Date and sort by date. I see that I need to have the MySQL queries do this, but do I set them up as conditionals with a href tags?

html-table mysql php
6 Answers

It depends on nature of your data. The answer varies based on its size and data type. I saw a lot of SQL solutions based on ORDER BY. I would like to suggest javascript alternatives.

In all answers, I don't see anyone mentioning pagination problem for your future table. Let's make it easier for you. If your table doesn't have pagination, it's more likely that a javascript solution makes everything neat and clean for you on the client side. If you think this table will explode after you put data in it, you have to think about pagination as well. (you have to go to first page every time when you change the sorting column)

Another aspect is the data type. If you use SQL you have to be careful about the type of your data and what kind of sorting suites for it. For example, if in one of your VARCHAR columns you store integer numbers, the sorting will not take their integer value into account: instead of 1, 2, 11, 22 you will get 1, 11, 2, 22.

You can find jquery plugins or standalone javascript sortable tables on google. It worth mentioning that the <table> in HTML5 has sortable attribute, but apparently it's not implemented yet.

user_29918720
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