here are two big questions i am exploring. 1) How could I change a whole row of data according to a key? I asked this in the php threads but then I realized where I really need to change this is in the database. so e needs to become egg and b needs to become ball 2) if I need something to sort but according to a non natural sort a good example is in the diamond business IF is the best normal diamond, VVS2 next best then way under it is IS or SI something, so the natural sort would be alphabetical but the unatural sort would be the best diamon to worst diamond grade.
> 1) How could I change a whole row of data according to a key? > so e needs to become egg > and b needs to become ball update mytable set mycol='egg' where mycol='e' > so the natural sort would be alphabetical but the unatural sort would be the > best diamon to worst diamond grade easy fix: add a new column grade_int or so and put 1, 2, 3, 4 in it for the different grades and sort on that, instead of sorting on the code if you're smart then don't put 1, 2, 3 but 100, 200, 300 so you can add numbers in between if something needs to be changed later another solution is to make a lookup table and join with that, but that may complicate it too much for you
I would love to hear more about how to use the left join, i can change the table as the guy i am building tihs for hopes to just upload his csv with no changes...