PHP mysql structure

[bitcycle]

I have a database of music artist. I want the main page to show all artist. Then artist by genre with mainpage.php?cat=Rock.

My problem is not understanding what kind of statements I need to be researching to do this.This code below puts everything on one page. I think I need an if then statement but Im not sure how to state if this link is clicked echo this if that link is pressed echo that  This is what I have so far. Thanks. O yea I'm very new to this. I have 2 years of linux admin background and I'm starting to learn html php mysql.bye
[code]

<?
$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "root", "password");
mysql_select_db("db1",$db);
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM db1",$db);
$result2 = mysql_query("Select artist FROM db1 where cat='$cat'",$db) or die(mys
while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
echo "<TR><TD>";
    echo $myrow["artist"];
echo "</br>";
}
echo "</TABLE>";
While ($myrow2 = mysql_fetch_array($result2))
{
echo "<TR><TD>";
echo $myrow2["artist"];
echo "</br>";
}
echo "<TABLE>";
?>






[/code]

[Darkness Soul]

I think you wanna something like:
[code]    // start where condition with void
    $where = '' ;
    // verify if cat is set
    if ( $_REQUEST['cat'] != '' )
    {
        // set where condition
        $where = ' where cat = "'. $_REQUEST['cat'] .'" ' ;
    }
    // mount the sql string
    $sql = ' SELECT artist FROM db1 '. $where ;
    // execute the query
    $result = mysql_query ( $sql , $db )[/code]
D.Soul

[bitcycle]

Darkness Soul,

You da man, Thanks for helping