$query = "SELECT DISTINCT names
FROM $table
Order by names";
$result = mysql_query($query);

In the code above, 'Order by' works very well when not used in
conjunction with other query-able items but how about when used in a
query where other possible choices are included? How do I use 'Order
by' in the query below where it will only act on 'names' when "All"
is
selected and otherwise, not really be active during the query as in
the code below? I'm using PHP to access MySQL. Thanks

$query = "SELECT *
FROM $table
WHERE 1 = 1 ";
if($year != "All") $query .= "and year = '".$year."'";
if($status != "All") $query .= "and status = '".
$status."'";
if($names != "All") $query .= "and names = '".$names."'";
$result = mysql_query($query);