Different displays of previously-SELECTed data

Before I shoot off down innumerable blind alleys...

A pro bono site I'm doing at present produces quite a lot of data per query,
and things are shortly going to get worse. At present, users can display the
same sets of data SORT-ed by different parameters (via column headings), but
this necessitates going back to the server each time, with the inevitable
delays.

If it is possible to store all the data initially in RAM, and sort and call
the different displays from there, with the speed that that should give me,
how do I do that?

Do I have to read each record set (array) into a sort'v master array? And if
I do, how can I SORT by different headings within that array?

I've had a look at php.net and the buffering thingie but it either isn't
what I need or (and this is more likely!) I didn't understand it.

TIA.

Iain.
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This post did not necessarily reflect my opinions. So there.

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