sort results

[poe]

i want to sort a column and show the 4 largest numbers from smallest to largest.

i know if i " ORDER BY col DESC LIMIT 4 " that will get me the highest 4 numbers. but i now want to sort these numbers from small to large

random order:
38 : 22 : 19 : 45 : 15 : 02 : 78

ORDER BY col DESC LIMIT 4:
78 : 45 : 38 : 22  [excluded 19, 15, 02]

i want to show:
22 : 38 : 45 : 78

if i make another 'ORDER BY' it gives me an error

[fenway]

Try this (UNTESTED):

[code]SELECT col FROM ( SELECT col FROM yourTable ORDER BY col DESC LIMIT 4 ) ORDER BY col[/code]

[poe]

i get this error

mysql_query() failed: Every derived table must have its own alias

[printf]

A database is very logical, if you ask a question then it will give you an answer, but if you try to ask (2) questions at once and expect (1) answer it will never work. So ask 1 (question) < enclose the first question, then give it the second question!

[code]$sql = "(SELECT id FROM table ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 4) ORDER BY id ASC";[/code]


printf

[fenway]

Didn't know you could do that... but I did miss an alias in my previous code.  I wonder if there's a difference in execution time.