previous and next links

[rooftop]

Hi

This is a beginners question I think.

I have a table of news items - which are currently listed - each linked to a pop up page that will display the details. Straightforward.

However my client would like to be able to have a previous / next link displayed beneath the details so that the visitor can also nove 'backwards' and 'forwards' through the items without going back to the main list.

For this it seems I would need some code that knows what 'item' is being displayed and be able to call up a link to the 'previous' and 'next' items. The table does contain a 'sortorder' field in which the client enters a number to specify the position of each item in the list. This would seem a natural contender but currently this can be any number they like.

[Mandes]

All your news items should be given an item ID, then you just need to query your database to find the next ID up and down from the current position.

 
For the next item
SELECT item_ID 
FROM table 
WHERE item_ID > '$currentitemid' 
ORDER item_ID ASC 
LIMIT 1;
 
 
For the previous
SELECT item_ID 
FROM table 
WHERE item_ID < '$currentitemid' 
ORDER item_ID DESC 
LIMIT 1;

Should get you most of the way there

[rooftop]

thank you Mandes

Your solution was right on the money! all done.