Sorting Numerically and then Alphabetically in Certain Format

Trying to find an answer for this question here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7547960/sorting-displaying-by-numeric-and-then-alphabetically

If any of you guys can't help that would be great

you can simply order by that field, and while retrieving, check if the first character equals the previous, so you know when to change lines of add a slash. Basically you need to keep track of the first character... since the field is a string, you can grab the first character with $varname[0].

select *, dataID * 1 as ord FROM data order by dataID * 1, dataID

You can detect the change in the $row['ord'] value to start a new section.

select *, dataID * 1 as ord FROM data order by dataID * 1, dataID

 

You can detect the change in the $row['ord'] value to start a new section.

I was going to suggest adding a new column for the numeric value of the dataID to use for sorting purposes. That is easier. However, if you are going to give the dynamic field a reference, might as well use it in the ORDER BY clause.

SELECT *, dataID * 1 AS ord FROM data ORDER BY ord, dataID

well that sorts them correctly (can someone explain how that SQL is actually working? haven't seen that method before)

but still I'm not sure how to get them showing correctly.... I can't just check the first number because 10 and 11 both start with 1... I guess I would need a regular expression or something to just get the number out to compare it with the previous number

Edit: lol I'm stupid... that's what "ord" is for I guess... still how does "dataID * 1" pull out the number?

By multiplying the field contents by 1, it is converted to a number and only the leading numerical value is used.

<?php

$query = "select dataID, dataID * 1 as ord FROM data order by ord, dataID";
$result = mysql_query($query);

$heading = null; // remember last heading, initialize to a value that will never exist as data
while(list($dataID,$ord) = mysql_fetch_row($result)){
if($heading != $ord){
	// a new (or first) heading found
	if($heading != null){
		// not the first heading, close out the previous section
		echo implode (' / ',$data) . '<br />';
	}
	$heading = $ord; // remember new heading
	// start a new section
	$data = array();
}
// handle each piece of data
$data[] = $dataID;
}
// close out the last section
echo implode (' / ',$data) . '<br />';

By multiplying the field contents by 1, it is converted to a number and only the leading numerical value is used.

 

<?php

$query = "select dataID, dataID * 1 as ord FROM data order by ord, dataID";
$result = mysql_query($query);

$heading = null; // remember last heading, initialize to a value that will never exist as data
while(list($dataID,$ord) = mysql_fetch_row($result)){
if($heading != $ord){
	// a new (or first) heading found
	if($heading != null){
		// not the first heading, close out the previous section
		echo implode (' / ',$data) . '<br />';
	}
	$heading = $ord; // remember new heading
	// start a new section
	$data = array();
}
// handle each piece of data
$data[] = $dataID;
}
// close out the last section
echo implode (' / ',$data) . '<br />';

Awesome

Works perfectly and makes sense... really appreciate the help