PHP Display as long as field is unique

In my MySQL table, there are several rows which share the same "case number". I want to display the case numbers on a page but do not want cases which have multiple rows to be displayed more than once. This is basica开发者_JAVA百科lly the code I am using:

//select all records
$query="SELECT * FROM cases ";
$rt=mysql_query($query);
echo mysql_error();                   

while($nt=mysql_fetch_array($rt)){

echo $nt['case'];
echo $nt['date_created'];

}

Any ideas?

using distinct like

SELECT distinct(case) ,date_created FROM cases

you need

SELECT DISTINCT(case_number) FROM cases

you might want to use ORDER BY to order the case_number or by any other field you want.

their is two ways you can do it.

either use distinct or group by like

SELECT
  DISTINCT(case), 
  date_created
FROM
  cases;

or

SELECT
  *
FROM
  cases
GROUP BY
  case;

Use an array in which the current case numbers are present. Loop through the list every time to prevent duplicates.