You're using the wildcard in the wrong place. Should be
"like '$letter%'"; Or, "left(column, 1) = '$letter'"; use a die() and mysql_error() to report problems to the browser: $result =mysql_query("SELECT * FROM emply_info WHERE LEFT(Lname, 1) = '$letter' ORDER BY Lname, Fname DESC",$db) or die("Database error: " . mysql_error()); James > $result =mysql_query("SELECT * FROM emply_info WHERE Lname ORDER BY Lname, > Fname > DESC LIKE'%$letter'",$db); > > $letter="a" > > That's what I tried. > > Chuck -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php