preliminary necessary information. Website runs php and mysql, many mysql tables, in this case the pertinent table is "books".
the pertinent parts of books are the columns title and subtitle.
I do queries to return lists of books sorted alphabetically (and by a number of other criteria).
the problem is that in a proper book catalog the title="The Dog Spot",subtitle="See How He Runs", is sorted by the letter "D" and not by the first letter of the string "The" (as articles such as 'A','An', 'The' are typically ignored in book catalogs, libaries etc)
So my question is, is there any kind of fancy SQL query that can do this without modifying the structure of the table?
I've got solutions to this problem, but all of them involve restructuring the database, and create more maintenance hassles.
any suggestions?
thanks!
Scott
the pertinent parts of books are the columns title and subtitle.
I do queries to return lists of books sorted alphabetically (and by a number of other criteria).
the problem is that in a proper book catalog the title="The Dog Spot",subtitle="See How He Runs", is sorted by the letter "D" and not by the first letter of the string "The" (as articles such as 'A','An', 'The' are typically ignored in book catalogs, libaries etc)
So my question is, is there any kind of fancy SQL query that can do this without modifying the structure of the table?
I've got solutions to this problem, but all of them involve restructuring the database, and create more maintenance hassles.
any suggestions?
thanks!
Scott