MYSQL PHP Order By Date and separate results into groups per each date

mysql, php

Solution

Just track the date.

You define a date with something that would not appear like a date in the past or just false.

Running through the lis you only print your heading when the date has changed and save the new date. Just like this:

$currentDate = false;
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
if ($row['start_date'] != $currentDate){
 echo
  '<strong>' .  
  $row['start_date'] . 
  '</strong>' ;
  $currentDate = $row['start_date'];
}
 echo 
  '<ul><li>' . 
  $row['activity_description'] .
  '</li><li>' .     
  $row['activity_location'] . 
  '</li></ul>'; 
 }

Regards, STEFAN

Problem

I have tried to search for a solution to my problem, but I'm not really sure what I am searching for, so I haven't had much luck. I have a simple MySQL database with one table called "activities". In that table I have fields for "start_date", "activity_description", and "activity_location". I am trying to do an MySQL query using PHP and display the results in ascending date order, but have all the activities that fall on the same date separated by a heading. For example I am trying to achieve the following. 2012-05-03 - Take dog for walk - Park - Go out for dinner - Little Italian Restaurant 2012-05-04 - Get Car Serviced - Johns Auto and Mechanical 2012-05-05 - Do Grocery Shopping - Fresh Supermarket - Go See Movie - MegaPlex Cinemas - Meet Up With Sam - Hole In The Wall Bar So far I have worked out that the MQSQL query needs to be something like this: ``` $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM activities ORDER BY start_date ASC") ``` And then to display the results I need to do this: ``` while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { echo '<strong>' . $row['start_date'] . '</strong>' . '<ul><li>' . $row['activity_description'] . '</li><li>' . $row['activity_location'] . '</li></ul>'; } ``` Which gives the results like so, repeating the date for each result: 2012-05-03 - Take dog for walk - Park 2012-05-03 - Go out for dinner - Little Italian Restaurant 2012-05-04 - Get Car Serviced - Johns Auto and Mechanical 2012-05-05 - Do Grocery Shopping - Fresh Supermarket 2012-05-05 - Go See Movie - MegaPlex Cinemas 2012-05-05 - Meet Up With Sam - Hole In The Wall Bar Could anyone give me some tips on how to only echo the 'start_date' once for a particular date, and then echo it again when the date is different from the previous date? Any tips, no matter how cryptic would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Original source