Going to amend this by saying that whereever the number you need to sort by is located, you should be able to extract it and do the padding trick even if it's in the middle of a string.. as long as the format is regular enough. -TG = = = Original message = = = You could try separating out the number an formatting it with SQL and doing an ORDER BY on the post-processed number. It doesn't have to appear in the SELECT <columns> portion to be able to use it in the ORDER BY section. SELECT BookName, PageNum, Citation FROM BookQuotes ORDER BY LPAD(PageNum,4,'0'); You could also probably convert the number from a string to an actual number so it sorted numerically. I think you get the idea. Give it a try and let us know! Then go back to the MySQL list and tell them how great PHP is. -TG = = = Original message = = = Hi gang: I posted the following question to the MySQL list, but the only answer I received thus far was a php solution (it didn't work for what I wanted). As such, maybe if I post a MySQL question to the PHP group, then I'll receive a MySQL answer -- so here goes: I'm using the following query, and it works. SELECT id, title, url_image_small FROM $dbtable WHERE type="type_title" ORDER BY title LIMIT $offset, $rowsPerPage" But, it sorts stuff like this: Basel Square 1 Basel Square 10 Basel Square 11 Basel Square 2 Basel Square 3 Basel Square 4 Basel Square 5 Basel Square 6 Basel Square 7 Basel Square 8 Basel Square 9 What do I have to change to get it (the query) to sort like this: Basel Square 1 Basel Square 2 Basel Square 3 Basel Square 4 Basel Square 5 Basel Square 6 Basel Square 7 Basel Square 8 Basel Square 9 Basel Square 10 Basel Square 11 Thanks in advance for any answers/suggestions tedd -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://sperling.com ___________________________________________________________ Sent by ePrompter, the premier email notification software. Free download at http://www.ePrompter.com. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php