this seems very innefficient

[chico1st]

this works but can i make this where command less.. gigantic?

<?php

//add a where condition of a certain author/topic/both
[b]if($postAuthor = $_POST['author']){
if($postTopic = $_POST['topic']){
$where = "AND news.authorID = '$postAuthor' AND news.topicID = '$postTopic'";
}else{
$where = "AND news.authorID = '$postAuthor'";
}
}else{
if($postTopic = $_POST['topic']){
$where = "AND news.topicID = '$postTopic'";
}else{
$where = "";
}
}[/b]

//add an ORDER BY condition of author/date/topic
if($_POST['sort'] == 'author'){
$sort = "author,";
}elseif($_POST['sort'] == 'topic'){
$sort = "topic,";
}


$query = "SELECT news.newsID,  news.name AS newsName, news.abstract, " .
"date.name AS date, topic.name AS topic, author.name AS author " .
        "FROM news, date, topic, author " .
        [b]"WHERE news.authorID = author.authorID AND topic.topicID = news.topicID AND news.dateID = date.dateID $where " .[/b]
"ORDER BY $sort date";

$result = mysql_query($query) or die($query."<br />\n".mysql_error());

if(mysql_num_rows($result) == 0){
$output = "Database is empty <br>";
}else{
$output = "<table>";
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){
$newsid = $row['newsID'];
$title = $row['newsName'];
$abstract = $row['abstract'];
$date = $row['date'];
$topic = $row['topic'];
$author = $row['author'];

$output .= "<tr><td>";
$output .= "<a href='news_article.php?id=$newsid'>$title</a><br>";
$output .= "<em>$abstract</em></td>";
$output .= "<td>$topic</td>";
$output .= "<td>$author</td>";
$output .= "<td>$date</td>";
$output .= "</tr>";
}
$output .= "</table>";
}
print $output;
  ?>

[fenway]

I'd simply built up an array of WHERE clauses, then deal with building the actual select statement after, since order doesn't matter.