I've got a database in which URLs are part of the data in some cases, in other cases not, like this:

<a href="http://members.aol.com/instyprnts/">Insty-Prints</a>
<a href="http://www.adpmarshall.com/">ADP Marshall Inc.</a>
University Physicians Inc.

When sorting alphabetically, the results should be:
ADP Marshall Inc.
Insty-prints
University Physicians Inc.

not
Insty-Prints
ADP Marshall Inc.
University Physicians Inc.


If someone could help me with the regular expression to ignore the URL (and where to put it in db.cgi!) I'd be grateful.

Larry

[This message has been edited by Larry Scritchfield (edited March 18, 1999).]

[This message has been edited by Larry Scritchfield (edited March 18, 1999).]

Are you saying that the field contents are

<a href="http://members.aol.com/instyprnts/">Insty-Prints</a>

It would be better to have separate fields for the name and the URL. Then you can sort by the name.


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JPD

That's right. The URL is integrated with the name. The idea is to give users immediate access to the company's site.

If you have them in two separate fields, you can still do that. You can use

<a href="$rec{'URL'}">$rec{'Name'}</a>

in html_record. That way you can still sort on the name field.


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JPD

Thanks, it was right there in front of me. Probably even in the README. I just needed someone to show me the way.

Now I just need to re-massage my data...

Thanks again.

Whoa. When there *is no URL*, the name still
comes up clickable, with the current address of dbman as the destination.

Sorry. Forgot to mention that.

In html_record, where you want to print out the URL, first close off your print statement with a |; (pipe character -- semi-colon).

Then enter


The add "print qq|" to start the rest of your print statement.

The reason I use length($rec{'URL'} > 7 is that you might want to have the field default to "http://" and if someone doesn't have a URL, those characters will still be there.


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JPD

Something isn't working. It's going straight to the "else" statement. I put in a matching right parenthesis in the "if" condition:

Sorry. (I seem to be saying that a lot these days.)

Good job noticing the missing parentheses. You just got it in the wrong place. It should be

if (length($rec{'URL'}) > 7) {



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JPD

That did the trick. You're a lifesaver JPDeni. Thanks a lot.