[SOLVED] stop repeating selection

[zhangy]

Hi! I have a small problem. On my blog i have a list of categories from recent posts. However some of these categories are used multiple times and so repeat in the list. I was wondering, is there a way to make it so that if once a specific category is output on the list it wont be able to do so again thereby avoiding repeats?

thanks!

 

<?php

require_once('load_data.php');

if (!mysql_connect($db_host, $db_user, $db_pwd))
    die("Can't connect to database");

if (!mysql_select_db($database))
    die("Can't select database");

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM $table ORDER BY submission_id DESC LIMIT 10")or die(mysql_error());

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{

echo '<li><a href="author.php?id='.$row['col_2'].'" class="job_link" title="recent posts by '.$row['col_2'].'">'.$row['col_2'].'</a></li>';

}
?>

 

 

[Asheeown]

<?php

require_once('load_data.php');

if (!mysql_connect($db_host, $db_user, $db_pwd))
    die("Can't connect to database");

if (!mysql_select_db($database))
    die("Can't select database");

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM $table ORDER BY submission_id DESC LIMIT 10")or die(mysql_error());
$Check = "";
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
        if(!in_array($row['col_2'], $Check)) {
             $Check[] = $row['col_2'];
     echo '<li><a href="author.php?id='.$row['col_2'].'" class="job_link" title="recent posts by '.$row['col_2'].'">'.$row['col_2'].'</a></li>';
}
}
?>

 

 

Honestly, I don't even know if this will work, basically the idea is to populate a small array.  If the value is already in the array, don't display it, if it isn't display the row and insert the value into the array.

 

 

[haku]

"SELECT DISTINCT(column_name) FROM ' . $table . ' ORDER BY submission_id DESC LIMIT 10"

[zhangy]

ah sweet!    It worked.

Thanks Fearsoldier, thanks haku!