At 10:08 +1000 2/12/02, David Mackay wrote: >Thanks for your quick response Dave, >Have tried this, but no bannana... >I get: >"You have an error in your SQL syntax near 'abs(id)' at line 1"
If you can't put an expression in your ORDER BY, that means your version of MySQL is older than 3.23. The workaround is to add another column to the selection list and refer to it in the ORDER BY using an alias or a column position: SELECT id, ABS(id) AS absid FROM tbl_name ORDER BY absid; or SELECT id, ABS(id) FROM tbl_name ORDER BY 2; Then ignore the second column of output when processing the result. > >Seems a not-valid thing to do these days... >Is there a work around? > > >Dave >from >Oz > > > >> select id from table_name order by abs(id); >> >> Dave >> >> >> Dundee! >> >> >> On Tue, Feb 12, 2002 at 09:46:25AM +1000, David Mackay wrote: >> > G'Day folks, >> > >> > >> > New to PHP/MySQL. >> > >> > Want to order the results of a SELECT by their 'absolute' >> value, not their >> > sign. >> > So regardless of whether it's +37 or -37, they are both 37 >> and thus both >> > come between 38 & 36, regardless of whether they're + or -. >> > eg. >> > 100 >> > -99 >> > -92 >> > 91 >> > 72 >> > -38 >> > 37 >> > -37 >> > etc... >> > >> > I have the order DESC but it puts 100 first, and -100 last, >> > (that's what you'd usually want, but >> > I need the extremes grouped at one end, >> > down to the middle point zero......). >> > >> > In my fantasy world I could do a ORDER BY ABS(number) DESC >> > If there was any other way to achieve the same result that >> would be just >> > dandy... >> > >> > I bet this is obvious. >> > >> > >> > Thanks for your time, >> > >> > David Mackay >> > >> > >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> > Before posting, please check: >> > http://www.mysql.com/manual.php (the manual) >> > http://lists.mysql.com/ (the list archive) >> > >> > To request this thread, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> > To unsubscribe, e-mail >> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> > Trouble unsubscribing? Try: >http://lists.mysql.com/php/unsubscribe.php > >--------------------------------------------------------------------- >Before posting, please check: > http://www.mysql.com/manual.php (the manual) > http://lists.mysql.com/ (the list archive) > >To request this thread, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To unsubscribe, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Trouble unsubscribing? Try: http://lists.mysql.com/php/unsubscribe.php --------------------------------------------------------------------- Before posting, please check: http://www.mysql.com/manual.php (the manual) http://lists.mysql.com/ (the list archive) To request this thread, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Trouble unsubscribing? Try: http://lists.mysql.com/php/unsubscribe.php
