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Trying to create a hyperlink

I am pulling data from a database and displaying it in a simple table.
My goal is to figure out how to be able to click on one of the 2 table headers, and make the page reload, sorting on the column selected.

I am first of all trying to figure out to make the headers into "hyperlinks". I cannot figure it out.

Here is my code, and I would appreciate any help or advice. Thank you.

Code:

        // get results from database 

        $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM mytable ")  

                or die(mysql_error());   

                 

        // display data in table                

        echo "<table border='1' cellpadding='10'>"; 

        echo "<tr><th>Last Name</th><th>First Name</th></tr>"; 



        // loop through results of database query, displaying them in the table 

               $count= 0;

            while($row = mysql_fetch_array( $result )) { 

        ++$count;

                

          

          // echo out the contents of each row into a table 

                     echo "<tr>";

                                 echo '<td width="100">' . $row['nameLast'] . '</td>';

                                 echo '<td width="100">' . $row['nameFirst'] . '</td>';

                 echo "</tr>";   

        }  



        echo "</table>"; 

?>

Okay, this is really 90% a PHP question and only 10% MySQL.

And I don't use PHP. So bear with me if I make a couple of PHP typos.

Code:

<!-- don't use PHP to write out large blocks of HTML -->

<!-- makes it harder to read, harder to write, and tiny bit slower -->

<table border="1"' cellpadding="10">; 

<tr>

    <th><a href="thispage.php?by=nameLast">Last Name</a></th>

    <th><a href="thispage.php?by=nameFirst">First Name</a></th>

</tr>

<?php

// make you db connection here ...



$orderby = $_GET["by"];

if ( ! isset($orderby) || ( $orderby != "nameLast" && $orderby != "nameFirst" ) ) 

{

    $orderby = "nameLast"; // or whatever default you choose

}



// get results from database 

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM mytable ORDER BY $orderby ")  

                or die(mysql_error());   



... rest the same ...

Thanks Old Pendant. I appreciate your taking the time. Makes perfect sense once someone shows you!