I need to pull data based on its exact sequence in an array

Question

Below is my code and I want to pull the data based on the sequence 3, 10 then 7, how can I do that? so far it pulls first 10, then 7, then 3.

Answer 1

The idea is to order the result by their respective position in the array. In this case MySQL FIND_IN_SET function can help you.

You may add the following order by statement:

ORDER BY FIND_IN_SET(car.id,'3,10,7')

Note: You need convert this order by statement in your equivalent cake php mysql query.

MySQL FIND_IN_SET() returns the position of a string if it is present (as a substring) within a list of strings. The string list itself is a string contains substrings separated by ‘,’ (comma) character.

This function returns 0 when search string does not exist in the string list and returns NULL if either of the arguments is NULL.

FIND_IN_SET

Sample Input:

query:

SELECT *
FROM cars

---

id
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Output:

query:

SELECT *
FROM cars
WHERE cars.id IN (3,10,7)
ORDER BY FIND_IN_SET(cars.id,'3,10,7')

---

id
3
10
7

Check the SQLFIDDLE DEMO here

Edit:

I don't know CAKE PHP syntax in building mysql query.

But The equivalent query in cake php mysql may be something like that:

$cars = $this->car->find('all', array(
        'conditions' => array(
            'car.id' => array(3, 10, 7)
        ),
        'limit' => 3, 
        'order' => array(FIND_IN_SET('car.id' , '3,10,7'))
    ));