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Php:Problem in sorting of elements?

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 1:35 am
by esandra
Hi. I am having problems arranging some elements.
This is what happens when we do an 'order by field_name asc':

0302MZ2010
0401ML2010
0505ML2010
0610ML2009
0615MZ2010

This is what I want to happen:

0302MZ2010
0401ML2010
0505ML2010
0615MZ2010
0610ML2009

Arrange the year in desc order and the rest should be in asc order.
Now, I'm very confused and I don't know how to do this.
Thanks a lot and have a nice day.

Re: Php:Problem in sorting of elements?

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 1:40 am
by John Cartwright
Perhaps you can do,

[text]ORDER BY substr(field_name, -4) DESC, field_name ASC[/text]

However, this is terribly inefficient and won't make use of any index. Your best bet is to parse the model number when you are inserting the data, and use a seperate year column. This way, you can make proper use of indexes and can organize your data clearly.

Re: Php:Problem in sorting of elements?

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:42 am
by esandra
thank you it worked for me