using PHP to delete rows in a database

[kevincro]

If I have a database table that has three columns.  They are named user_name, number, user_id.  Lets say that the values in 8 seperate rows are as follows:

• joe  85 7
  
• bill  85 10
  
• Dave  83 22
  
• Sue  85 3
  
• Andy  85 5
  
• Susan  83 13
  
• Jim  85 9
  
• Kenneth  83 16
  

 

My question is, how do I construct a query in PHP/MySQL that will delete only the first entry with the number column value of 83.  In this case that would be Dave.

Thanks

Kevin

[ohdang888]

mysql_query("DELETE FROM `table` WHERE `your_column` = '80' LIMIT 1") or die(mysql_error());

 

or for a variable, changing query...

 

mysql_query("DELETE FROM `table` WHERE `your_column` = '{$number}' LIMIT 1 ") or die(mysql_error());

[BlueSkyIS]

unless you use a more details WHERE clause or an ORDER BY clause, you can't be certain that Dave's 83 will be the one deleted. is there a column that is primary key for this table?

[ohdang888]

ya, hes right. You have more than 1 column under "83", it will delete all of them (if you remove the LIMIT 1)

[BlueSkyIS]

what i meant was that even if you insert one record before another, you can't be sure that the first one you inserted will be the first one deleted. don't think of a (at least MySQL) table as a stack of records. it's more like a random jumble; if you don't specify a record, you never know what you'll get.