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:micah@raincross-tech.com]
> Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2007 9:23 PM
> To: sidprice@softtools.com; 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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>