how to generate an A-to-Z list?

[ivytony]

I want to retrieve merchant names stored in my database in an A-Z list fashion. The column of merchant names has single-word names and multi-word names. I'd like to make the A-Z list by the first letter in the names. The number of merchants is around 10,000.

 

 

Can someone teach me how to do it?

[therealwesfoster]

SELECT * FROM names ORDER BY names DESC

 

Change the column names to whatever you need.

 

DESC = Descending

ASC  = Ascending

[ivytony]

thanks! but I meant to do a list like this:

 

A,  B, C, D, .... X, Y, Z and the letters are linked to anchored individual section whose merchant names begin with the corresponding letter.

 

Any smart way to do this?

 

Thanks!

[fenway]

I'm quite confused... you'd have all of the letters regardless.

[fenway]

Or you you mean using LEFT( yourColumn, 1 )

[GingerRobot]

I'd so something like this:

 

<?php
$sql = "SELECT DISTINCT UPPER(SUBSTRING(merchant,1,1)) AS first_letter FROM tbl ORDER BY first_letter";
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error());
while(list($letter) = mysql_fetch_row($result)){
    echo '<a href="'.$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'].'?letter='.$letter.'">'.$letter.'</a> ';
}
if(isset($_GET['letter'])){
    $letter = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['letter']);
    $sql = "SELECT merchant FROM tbl WHERE merchant LIKE '$letter%'";
    $result = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error());
    echo '<br /><br />';
    while(list($merchant) = mysql_fetch_row($result)){
        echo $merchant.'<br />';
    }
}
?>

 

I know you said about using anchors; but with 10,000 records, there's going to be a lot of merchants beginning with some letters, meaning a lot of scrolling for the user. Therefore, i'd use the above with some pagination.