How to list Dynamic categories

[ibec]

Hi I'm new to the forum and MySQL and PHP. I hope you'll excuse the simple question.
Here's my problem: On our website I'm trying to put together a dynamic collection of links that will be presented on one page. For the database table, I've created the following columns:
id, category, link_name, http, description

My problem is that when I present the links, I want to group them by their category and have the category name as the section title. But I don't want to be limited by preset categories. I want the admin to be able to create as many categories as they want and the links page dynamically respond to it.

So... how do I get MySQL to tell me:
a- How many categories there are within a column
b- and what they are

Thank you in advance for your help.

[r035198x]

...
a- How many categories there are within a column
b- and what they are

Thank you in advance for your help.

[CODE=mysql]select distinct(catego ry) from tableName[/CODE] ?

[ibec]

Wow, works like a charm. Thank you.