How to search records from database?

[waqasahmed996]

Hi
I want to specify a search criteria but not know is it possible or not. My table has following fields and data.

Table name :  tablename
fields     :  category        languageid         Data
Data            1                 IS              Yes
                1                 EN               *
                2                 IS              Yes 
                2                 EN              NULL
                3                 IS              Yes
                4                 IS              Yes
                4                 EN              Yes

Now what i want:

I want to write a query which give me result for records where
data against languageid 'IS' exist and data against languageid 'EN' is * or NULL or not exist.

Please let me know if i am not clear in my question. I will be very thankful if you even just think to solve it.

[Rabbit]

What are the results you're looking for?

[waqasahmed996]

Thanks for reply
i want to looking for first 5 records(upto category 3)

[Rabbit]

You can use a subquery to return the set of IDs you don't want and use that to filter them out.

[waqasahmed996]

i found the solution. Thanks a lot for your cooperation. query can be

SELECT * FROM `aatest` where `languageid`='IS' and data!='' and `categoryid` not in (Select categoryid from aatest where languageid='EN' and data is not NULL and data!='*') or (`languageid`='EN' and (`data` ='*' or data is NULL))