[SOLVED] How to set display order of while loop

[phpdragon]

I have a mysql query selecting items from a DB, it has a field in the table called status which can only have one of the following 4 values (pending, allocated, packed, completed), my question is how can I display them, in that order, i have them listed in now. every item will have one of these status levels.

[Philip]

order by

[phpdragon]

yes I understand order by but I dont want it listed alphabetically or numerically, I would like the list order in this fashion:-

 

Pending

Allocated

Packed

Completed

 

this order doesnt comply to any of the above rules

 

[PFMaBiSmAd]

See the March 28 2005 6:16pm User comment at this link - http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/sorting-rows.html

[phpdragon]

Thankyou PFMaBiSmAd excellent link and problem solved for anyone else wanting to know here is a quote containing the answer 

 

Here's an example of Eamon Daly's point using the PET table -

 

$sql="SELECT * FROM pet ORDER BY FIELD(species, 'cat', 'dog', 'bird')";