Else statements in array

[jonathen]

Hi all,

Been working on my search script, and it all works fine, apart from one thing. If I enter a keyword that is not found in the table I am searching, the results page displays nothing. I want the results page to display a custom error (i.e "No matches found, click here to search again")

The array displays results (if results found) correctly, and also displays a custom error for no keyword entered, but I cannot seem to find the corrct place to put the final else statement.

I'll include the code here, broken down into sections to make more sense:-

This is the opening array, which is fine:

 if ($search)   // perform search only if a string was entered. 
   { 
    mysql_connect("localhost","user","pass") or die ("Problem connecting to Database"); 
    mysql_select_db("my_db") or die( "Unable to select database");
    $srch="%".$search."%"; 
    $query = "SELECT * from my_table WHERE date LIKE '$srch' || exhibition  LIKE '$srch' || address LIKE '$srch'  || time  LIKE '$srch' || contact LIKE '$srch' || notes LIKE '$srch' ORDER by date ASC"; 

$result = mysql_db_query("my_db", $query) 
or print "&gt;&gt;&gt; MySQL-Error: ".mysql_errno()." -&gt; ".mysql_error()."<br>\n";

Now for the array that matters - the result:

if  ($result) 
    { 
	echo "<img src=\"$url/images/exhibits-main.jpg\"><br><br>";
    echo "<strong>Exhibition Search Results, listed by date order:</strong><br><br><br>"; 

    while ($r = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {     // Begin while 
        $date = $r["date"]; 
        $exhibition = $r["exhibition"]; 
        $address = $r["address"]; 
        $time = $r["time"]; 
        $contact = $r["contact"]; 
        $notes = $r["notes"]; 
echo "<table width=\"50%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"3\" bordercolor=\"#000000\">";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td class=\"exhibitdate\"><strong>$date</strong></td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td><strong>$exhibition</strong></td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>$address</td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td><strong>Time:</strong> $time</td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td><strong>Contact:</strong> $contact</td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>$notes</td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "<br><br>";
        }                  // end while 
echo "</table>"; 
echo "<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>";
}

Then I end with some else statements, and this is where I'm sure I need another else statement if there is no result, but cannot figure where to put it:

else { echo "The script is broken"; 
}
   } else { 
   echo "You did not enter anything to search for.<br>Please <a href=\"search.php\">go back</a> and enter a search word."; 
} 

Now the last two else statements (in order) only come into effect if:

1. The script's syntax is broken
2. Nothing was entered into the search field

Does anyone know where I put the else (or perhaps elseif?) statement to allow for no results, which will return something like:

else { echo "No matches found, click here to search again";
}

...because no matter where I put that statement within the script, it either breaks the script or affects other else statements.

Help!!!

TIA

Jonathen

[keith73]

on the line where you have

if  ($result) 

add this

if  ($result) 
	if($mysql_num_rows($result) <= 0){
		echo "NO RESULTS FOUND!";
	} else {
		//show results here
	}

I notice you assign the results to vars, this is a bit redundant and unneccessary.

instead of:

echo "<td class=\"exhibitdate\"><strong>$date</strong></td>";

you could do:

echo "<td class=\"exhibitdate\"><strong>$r['date']</strong></td>";

that will save memory. I used to do the same thing until I started learning to optimize it. But that's just a suggestion.

• Keith

[jonathen]

That makes sense, so I applied it - I replaced:

if  ($result) 
    { 

...with

if($mysql_num_rows($result) <= 0){
        echo "NO RESULTS FOUND!";
    } else {

as you said. However, that now causes a parse error further down on the line:

else { echo "The script is broken"; 
}

So I removed that line. Now the script runs, and works if nothing is entered in the search field, but if something is entered (whether or not there is a result) I get the following errors:

Notice: Undefined variable: mysql_num_rows in exhibitionsearch.php on line 23

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: () in exhibitionsearch.php on line 23

???

Thanks,

Jonathen

[RedDragon]

replace

if($mysql_num_rows($result) <= 0){
        echo "NO RESULTS FOUND!";
    } else {

with

if(mysql_num_rows($result) <= 0){
        echo "NO RESULTS FOUND!";
    } else {

[keith73]

woops, sorry about that, just a little typo.

if($mysql_num_rows($result) <= 0){
should be
if(mysql_num_rows($result) <= 0){

[jonathen]

I can't believe I missed that - doh!

Thanks to both of you for all your help, it's greatly appreciated, and finally the headache of this script is over with - time to move on to the next one ;o)

Thanks again,

Jonathen