User Search

[jaZon]

Ok, I have an item list and a small description for each item in my database. I have looked through several books that have simple examples of the built in php search feature, but have yet to get any to work. How would I do this? All I want is the user to be able to search through the item descriptions, which are only 50 characters a piece max, and return matches. Say they search for tylenol....I just want those w/ tylenol listed to show. ideas?

[br__ken]

is it descriptions from a db?

//query
$q="SELECT * FROM products WHERE description REGEXP '$searchterms'";

it will just find $searchterms anywhere in the description, if its in a text file then just use stristr or something

[jaZon]

ugh! No matter how I go about it I get "Number of Items Found: 0"

[br__ken]

post your query, and some of the code around it

[jaZon]

Original:

<?
	$searchterm = trim($searchterm);
	if (!$searchtype || !$searchterm)
	{
		echo "You have not entered any search details.  Please try again.";
		exit;
	}

$searchtype = addslashes($searchtype);
$searchterm = addslashes($searchterm);

$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "login", "pwd");

if (!$db)
{
	echo "Error:  Could not connect to database.  Please try again later.";
	exit;
}

mysql_select_db("circular_product_list");
$query = "select sku,product,price,department from circular_product_list where " . $searchtype . " like '%" . $searchterm . "%'";
$result = mysql_query($query);		
$num_results = mysql_num_rows($result);

echo "Number of Items Found:  " . $num_results;

while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($result))
{
	echo htmlspecialchars(stripslashes($row[0]));
	echo "<BR>Product: ";
	echo htmlspecialchars(stripslashes($row[1]));
	echo "<BR>Price: ";
	echo htmlspecialchars(stripslashes($row[2]));
	echo "<BR>Department: ";
	echo htmlspecialchars(stripslashes($row[3]));
	echo "</p>";
}

?>

[NiXXeD]

I don't remember from who or why, but I heard that LIKE clauses are really slow and do not work with indices... Maybe you should try the REGEXP that was posted above...

[br__ken]

yeah regexp tends to work faster, but it shoudlnt really matter for your problem. are you sure your DB name and table name are the same?

change the connect/select db lines to these:

mysql_connect("host","usr","pswd") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("db") or die(mysql_error());

if those don't error, then it must be with the query, and we can go from there

[jaZon]

Ok, here's what i have now:

<?
	$searchterm = trim($searchterm);
	if (!$searchterm)
	{
		echo "You have not entered any search details.  Please try again.";
		exit;
	}

$searchterm = addslashes($searchterm);

$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "jazon", "rbjkls") or die(mysql_error());

if (!$db)
{
	echo "Error:  Could not connect to database.  Please try again later.";
	exit;
}

mysql_select_db("jazon_tqhosting_com") or die(mysql_error());
$query = "select sku,product,price,department from circular_product_list where product REGEXP '$searchterms'";
$result = mysql_query($query);		
$num_results = mysql_num_rows($result);

echo "Number of Items Found:  " . $num_results;

while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($result))
{
	echo htmlspecialchars(stripslashes($row[0]));
	echo "<BR>Product: ";
	echo htmlspecialchars(stripslashes($row[1]));
	echo "<BR>Price: ";
	echo htmlspecialchars(stripslashes($row[2]));
	echo "<BR>Department: ";
	echo htmlspecialchars(stripslashes($row[3]));
	echo "</p>";
}

?>

Now I'm getting these errors:

Warning: mysql_num_rows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/virtual/site69/fst/var/www/html/prodlist/results.php on line 24
Number of Items Found:
Warning: mysql_fetch_row(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/virtual/site69/fst/var/www/html/prodlist/results.php on line 28

Those lines would be:

	$num_results = mysql_num_rows($result);

and

while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($result))

[br__ken]

try the query i wrote in the first reply

$q="SELECT * FROM products WHERE description REGEXP '$searchterms'";

[jaZon]

I did. Same two error msgs that I posted in the last message.

[br__ken]

thats odd, im using basically the same code (http://zbdesign.biz/code/search.php -> view source)

its a somewhat messy method, but it works pretty good. i bet its something stupid that were both missing

actually i found something, you define $searchterm, but in the query its $searchtermS -> also, try taking out the addslashes($searchterm). that might work

edit: if all that fails, put this in place of the mysql_query($query) ...

$result=mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
b/c if its not returning rows, the query is fucked up

[jaZon]

yea, this is really pissing me off.......btw, I love your design broken

[br__ken]

thanks 🙂 i ran through about 50 designs , but this one is fairly simple and fast haha. my site is my place to toss stuff up that i learn, and a way for me to try and learn more stuff

edit again: just noticed youre a day older than me - damn stubborn tarus 😃

[jaZon]

seems i came a day before the brain was going to develop :beatup:

[jaZon]

SIGH still no search

[jaZon]

I just did see this:

$result=mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
b/c if its not returning rows, the query is fucked up

So I do that and get an error. I correct it and now the page loads completely fucking blank. >-0

[br__ken]

thats because die("msg") terminates php.. what was the error btw?

[nashirak]

In terms of debugging... right after you make the MYSQL query (and before) place a

 echo MYSQL_ERROR(); 

;

My personal feeling is that either the Query is incorrect or that something is screwed up in the connection.

Hope this helps some!

[jaZon]

broken, the error was an s on products where it should have been just product in the query.

Now I'm getting no errors whatsoever, no or dies are present, and nothing is showing up.

[jaZon]

ok, for some reason I can't get a phps to work properly, so I saved the file to txt. http://jazon.tqhosting.com/prodlist/results.txt