PHP variable combining issue

Question

I am trying to concatenate a variable to my sql query in php to have my table sorted according to that variable. For eg:

if ($_GET['sort'] == 'Val'){
   $query .= " ORDER BY val";
}

I need a variabvle $sortorder to be concatenated with this query. so that i get sorted query in ASC or DESC. What i do is

$order = ASC ;

if ($_GET['sort'] == 'Val'){
   $query .= " ORDER BY val" ."$order";
}

and write the logic for

if($order==ASC){$order= DESC}

and vice versa. but it doesnt work. table is not displayed. some syntax issue?

Anyone could help on this. ?

Answer 1

You need to introduce a space. Otherwise SQL will read ORDER BY valDESC

So:

$query .= " ORDER BY val " ."$order";

Or more compact:

$query .= " ORDER BY val $order";

You can check that your query is as expected by simply printing it

echo $query ;

This simple debugging can help you to resolve problem

Answer 2

Use:

$query .= " ORDER BY val $order";

You need a space between the column name and the sort order. Your code was generating:

ORDER BY valASC

If you simply did echo $query; before trying to execute it, you would surely have seen this. Please do some basic, obvious debugging before posting here.