Sorting results of odbc_exec???

[Karin Jensen]

Hi

I am running a PHP program that connects to an Access 2000 database
via ODBC:
$results = odbc_exec($connection_id, $sql_select);

Is it possible to sort the contents of $results? I wish to use a
regex-based sort order that you can't do in Access 2000* SQL with
"ORDER BY".

Thanks!

Karin

* There is the function rgxValidate by John Nurick, which uses
VBScript.Regexp to provide a regex fn for Access, but this is slow
in queries because it creates a RegExp object and compiles the
regular expression every time it is called.

[Erwin Moller]

Karin Jensen wrote:

Hi

I am running a PHP program that connects to an Access 2000 database
via ODBC:
$results = odbc_exec($connection_id, $sql_select);

Is it possible to sort the contents of $results? I wish to use a
regex-based sort order that you can't do in Access 2000* SQL with
"ORDER BY".

Thanks!

Karin

* There is the function rgxValidate by John Nurick, which uses
VBScript.Regexp to provide a regex fn for Access, but this is slow
in queries because it creates a RegExp object and compiles the
regular expression every time it is called.

Hi,

PHP is so friendly, you can write your own comparision-functions, which you
can let PHP call to define how to sort.
:-)

Have a look at usort
http://nl2.php.net/usort

See also uasort(), uksort().

Good luck!

Regards,
Erwin Moller

[Alvaro G Vicario]

*** Karin Jensen wrote/escribió (Fri, 26 Aug 2005 10:40:03 +0100):

Is it possible to sort the contents of $results? I wish to use a
regex-based sort order that you can't do in Access 2000* SQL with
"ORDER BY".

I haven't checked the manual but I guess odbc_*() functions do now allow
custom sorting. However, there're array functions that allow such task. So
you'd need to load all results into an array. I hope the query doesn't
return 10,000 records ;-)

uasort()
uksort()
usort()

--
-- Álvaro G. Vicario - Burgos, Spain
-- http://bits.demogracia.com - Mi sitio sobre programación web
-- Don't e-mail me your questions, post them to the group
--

[Karin Jensen]

Erwin Moller wrote:

Karin Jensen wrote:

Hi
I am running a PHP program that connects to an Access 2000
database via ODBC:
$results = odbc_exec($connection_id, $sql_select);
Is it possible to sort the contents of $results? I wish to use a
regex-based sort order that you can't do in Access 2000* SQL
with "ORDER BY".

Hi,

PHP is so friendly, you can write your own comparision-functions,
which you can let PHP call to define how to sort.
:-)

Have a look at usort
http://nl2.php.net/usort

See also uasort(), uksort().

Thanks, Erwin! Sorry to ask more, but the question I was getting at
was whether (in my example) $results would have to be dealt with in
a special way, as it is from an ODBC function.

I am new to PHP and not sure what sort of object $results is or how
to find out what sort of object it is.

PHP clearly knows that $results is ODBC-derived, as you have to
extract data/info from it using special functions (odbc_fetch_row,
odbc_result and so on). I was wondering if this affected how you
would sort it.

Many thanks,

Karin

[Karin Jensen]

On Fri, 26 Aug 2005, Alvaro G Vicario wrote:

I haven't checked the manual but I guess odbc_*() functions do now
allow custom sorting. However, there're array functions that allow
such task. So you'd need to load all results into an array. I hope
the query doesn't return 10,000 records ;-)

Thanks, Alvaro. Excuse my ignorance, but what would be the syntax
for loading the results into an array? I'm not clear how to deal
with odbc results outside the odbc function set.

Best wishes,

Karin

[Erwin Moller]

Karin Jensen wrote:

Erwin Moller wrote:

Karin Jensen wrote:

Hi
I am running a PHP program that connects to an Access 2000
database via ODBC:
$results = odbc_exec($connection_id, $sql_select);
Is it possible to sort the contents of $results? I wish to use a
regex-based sort order that you can't do in Access 2000* SQL
with "ORDER BY".
Hi,

PHP is so friendly, you can write your own comparision-functions,
which you can let PHP call to define how to sort.
:-)

Have a look at usort
http://nl2.php.net/usort

See also uasort(), uksort().

Thanks, Erwin! Sorry to ask more, but the question I was getting at
was whether (in my example) $results would have to be dealt with in
a special way, as it is from an ODBC function.

I am new to PHP and not sure what sort of object $results is or how
to find out what sort of object it is.

Hi,

Yes, your $result is a special case: it is a 'resource'.
I wouldn't be surprised if you could treat it like an array after some
fiddling around, but I do not know.
Safest bet is to copy all the rows to your own array-structure, then use
that structure to do the sorting.

But a fair warning, if you have little experience with PHP and arrays in
PHP, you better take a day or two to get some experience.
PHP is very powerfull when it comes to arrays, but things can get
confusing/intimidating in the beginning.

eg: Try to create your own datastructures, using strings as keys.

$myArr["userid12"]["name"] = "john";
$myArr["userid12"]["city"] = "Amsterdam";
$myArr["userid12"]["admin"] = "N";
$myArr["userid12"]["articles"][] = 21;
$myArr["userid12"]["articles"][] = 26;

$myArr["userid23"]["name"] = "Bert";
$myArr["userid23"]["city"] = "Los Angeles";
$myArr["userid23"]["admin"] = "Y";
$myArr["userid23"]["articles"][] = 17;

etc.

PHP can use the keys ("useridxx") as material to do the sorting AND keep the
underlying arrays coupled to the keys.

I (and others) find that kind of datarepresentation extremely powerfull to
use and easy to implement.
(Note: My example is a bit over the top, but illustrates the use of
associative arrays to create/store all kind of datastructures.)

Well, just read up at php.net about arrays, it is all there. :-)

Good luck.

Regards,
Erwin Moller

PHP clearly knows that $results is ODBC-derived, as you have to
extract data/info from it using special functions (odbc_fetch_row,
odbc_result and so on). I was wondering if this affected how you
would sort it.

Many thanks,

Karin

[Erwin Moller]

Karin Jensen wrote:

On Fri, 26 Aug 2005, Alvaro G Vicario wrote:

I haven't checked the manual but I guess odbc_*() functions do now
allow custom sorting. However, there're array functions that allow
such task. So you'd need to load all results into an array. I hope
the query doesn't return 10,000 records ;-)

Thanks, Alvaro. Excuse my ignorance, but what would be the syntax
for loading the results into an array? I'm not clear how to deal
with odbc results outside the odbc function set.

Best wishes,

Karin

Hi Karin,

These kind of questions are barely suitable for a ng, not because we don't
want to help you, but because this is all nicely described on www.php.net
including massive examples.

Just go to php.net and start reading about arrays, for-next, while, and
databasequeries.
Really, it is all there including examples.

Good luck.

Regards,
Erwin Moller

[Karin Jensen]

Erwin Moller wrote:

Karin Jensen wrote:

On Fri, 26 Aug 2005, Alvaro G Vicario wrote:

I haven't checked the manual but I guess odbc_*() functions do
now allow custom sorting. However, there're array functions
that allow such task. So you'd need to load all results into an
array. I hope the query doesn't return 10,000 records ;-)

Thanks, Alvaro. Excuse my ignorance, but what would be the
syntax for loading the results into an array? I'm not clear how
to deal with odbc results outside the odbc function set.

These kind of questions are barely suitable for a ng, not because
we don't want to help you, but because this is all nicely
described on www.php.net including massive examples.

Just go to php.net and start reading about arrays, for-next,
while, and databasequeries.
Really, it is all there including examples.

Sorry, I think it is partly my fault for not being clear. I have no
problem in using or sorting arrays. My initial question was about
sorting an ODBC resource.

In the follow up question above, I was wondering if there was a
quick way of putting ODBC results into array. From the ODBC
reference pages, the command "odbc_fetch_into" fetches one result
row into an array. Is there a single-line way of getting the ODBC
results into a multi-dimensional array without looping through the
rows? (Note, I am not asking how to do the latter, just whether it
is necessary!)

Thanks for your patience,

Karin