Returning results into a table with no repeat of data

[lobster1983]

Hi guys, i got another prob with a diff script of mine...

The user can click a letter of the alphabet and all the artists beginning with that letter will be shown. But my problem is if the user has say 5 songs in the db then the artist name will appear 5 times.

Below is the script which i currently have which does this:

Code: Select all

if (!$alphaletter) 
  { 
     echo 'No "letter" passed in, an error has occurred.  Please go back and try again.'; 
     exit; 
  } 
  else 
   { 
      $sql_query = "SELECT * FROM users_table WHERE artist like '$alphaletter%'"; 
  } 


$result = @mysql_query($sql_query) or die ("Invalid Query: " . mysql_error()); 

        echo '<table width="871" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><th><table border="1"  width="250" align="left"><tr align="left"><th>Artist</th></tr>'; 
         
$num_results = mysql_num_rows($result); 

        while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) 
        { 
        echo '<tr align "left"><th align="left">'; echo ''.$row[1].'</th></tr>'; 
        echo '
'; 
        } 
        echo '</table></th></tr></table>'; 
?>

Can anyone tell me what i need to do so it only shows the artist once no matter how many songs they have in the db plzzzz?

Many thanks Lobster

[sypher]

In the mysql query put:
LIMIT 1 at the end.

[lobster1983]

If i do that it only shows one artist all together. I want it to show many artists but only 1 of each.

Here is an example of my problem...say i got 3 songs by james smith and 3 songs by james black... i get

Artist ||

James Smith
James Smith
James Smith
James Black
James Black
James Black

But any of the James Smith's when clicked will give the same page..

So i just want

Artist ||

James Smith
James Black

Any ideas on how to do this?

Thanks lobster

[Pheonix]

In your sql sort by artist
then in your loop

if($lastartist != $thisartist) echo $thisartist;

if that doesn't make sence, say so, and i'll give you more details.

[lobster1983]

I understand the IF statement, but im not sure where it goes in the code Sorry im still learning the basics of PHP, if you could explain a bit further that wud be gr8

Thanks Lobster

[benbacardi]

could you not just add "GROUP BY artistname" to the end of the SQL query string?

[lobster1983]

Ben you done it again! Thankyou!! arghhhhh that problem has been bugging me for the last 2 days!! Thanks!!!!!! Problem solved!

lobster :P

[benbacardi]

glad to help