If you happened to mean a database table then you first have to define the order, then get the value of the order column(s) for that row and then select one row that would be before that row in the ordering.

Assuming the table is named People, you want it sorted on LastName and then FirstName and want the person just before the person with ID 15 it could be something like this: 

SELECT TOP 1 Previous.*
  from People as Previous
  join People as This on Previous.LastName < This.LastName or Previous
+.LastName = This.LastName and Previous.FirstName < This.FirstName
 WHERE This.ID = 15
 ORDER BY Previous.LastName DESC, Previous.FirstName DESC

[download]
If you happened to be looking for the guy just before John Doe it would be simpler: 
SELECT TOP 1 *
  from People
 WHERE LastName < 'Doe' or LastName = 'Doe' and FirstName < 'Joe'
 ORDER BY Previous.LastName DESC, Previous.FirstName DESC

[download]

Jenda
Support Denmark!
Defend the free world!

In reply to Re: how to find an element in a table by Jenda
in thread how to find an element in a table by steph_bow

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.