PHP - get rows in MySQL database ordered by serialized dates -
i have ran predicament on system have been working on. in table "class" there multiple rows of classes. column focusing on "dates". on admin dashboard, need able list classes closest date farthest away. tried using not work way want to. mysqli_query("select * class order dates asc") my problem column "dates" serialized array of start , end dates. because of can't use strtotime() make above code work 100% correctly. my overall question is, there way can sort query serialized date string? i know opinions of different ways arise, that's not i'm shooting for. if possible or have idea, please post answer. mysql order serialized data? no, not possible. possible case when serialized data acceptable when don't need search or order through data. in other cases - store data separated fields.