milov.nl/links/ mysql> SELECT LOWER(LEFT(li_title,1)) AS beginletter, COUNT(*) AS count FROM link WHERE li_parent='1' GROUP BY beginletter ORDER BY count DESC;

+-------------+-------+
| beginletter | count |
+-------------+-------+
| b           |    26 |
| t           |    24 |
| m           |    23 |
| s           |    23 |
| p           |    19 |
| l           |    16 |
| a           |    15 |
| d           |    14 |
| e           |    14 |
| w           |    13 |
| c           |    12 |
| g           |    10 |
| i           |     9 |
| h           |     9 |
| f           |     8 |
| o           |     8 |
| r           |     7 |
| v           |     5 |
| j           |     5 |
| n           |     5 |
| u           |     3 |
| q           |     3 |
| k           |     3 |
| y           |     3 |
| z           |     2 |
| x           |     2 |
| 9           |     1 |
| 2           |     1 |
| 0           |     1 |
+-------------+-------+
29 rows in set (0.00 sec)