SQL search query

[jamesloi]

Hi,

am tryin to use this search query

$query = 'SELECT * FROM CD_data

WHERE (Artist LIKE '$title%') OR (Title LIKE '$title%')

         OR (Genre LIKE '$title%')';

the '$title' value is a value from a text box. This doesn't work for some reason. but it is definatley a valid SQL statement.

any ideas why this doesnt' work?🙁

thanks

[nnichols]

If the data is being entered in a form I would suggest that you add % before the search term as well as after it -

$query = "SELECT * FROM CD_data 

WHERE (Artist LIKE '%$title%') OR (Title LIKE '%$title%') 

OR (Genre LIKE '%$title%')";

The reason it wouldn't work was because you had 'single quotes' around it.

Hope this helps 😉

P.S. You might want to read the section in the manual that discusses the difference between 'single' and "double".

[fandelem]

Keep in mind that if you do use % BEFORE anything, like '%$title%' then NO indexes are used (I believe MySQL requires at least three starting characters? Could be wrong). So if this is quite a high volume searched-site, and the database is extensive, then you may want to consider other options. I would recommend MySQL's 'fulltext' feature. Found here: http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Fulltext_Search.html

cheers,

k.