Micah,
I think I understand, here is my query, however I get a syntax error report and it is not clear what the problem is. Any suggestions: select * from business_names left join business_entries using business_entries.bus_id left join business_categories using business_categories.bcat_id where business_categories.bcat_id=17 order by business_names.organisation Thank you for your help, Sid. Sid Price Software Design http://www.softtools.com _____ From: Micah Stevens [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 1:10 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; mysql@lists.mysql.com Subject: Re: Sorting Problem The query using JOIN syntax (you can read about this in the documentation) describes the interelationship between the three tables you described, in this way you can select information based on a WHERE clause as it relates to the category table, while still ordering by the business table. Read up on joins, that may help. -Micah Sid Price wrote: I am sorry but I don't understand the select query you wrote, could you perhaps explain how it works or point me to a reference that might help me understand it? Many thanks for responding, Sid. Sid Price Software Design http://www.softtools.com -----Original Message----- From: Micah Stevens [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2007 9:23 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; mysql@lists.mysql.com Subject: Re: Sorting Problem This doesn't work? SELECT businesses.name from businesses left join links using (businessID) left join categories using (categoryID) where category.name = 'something' order by businesses.name ASC On 03/25/2007 12:40 PM, Sid Price wrote: Hello, I have a MySQL database design that provides an online business directory. It consists of three tables; one with the names and addresses of the businesses (names), one with the categories of businesses (categories), and one that has an entry (a category ID and a business ID) for each business/category pairing (entries), a business may be in multiple categories. The problem I am having is after having queried the "entries" table for all the entries for a given category I query the "names" table for each entry to display the business name and address, I can not figure a way to sort the displayed data by company name, The "entries" table holds the business ID and category ID so sorting the entries that match the category doesn't help. Do I need to create a temporary table to hold the business names/addresses in a category so that I can then sort it? Thanks, Sid. Sid Price Software Design http://www.softtools.com
