advanced search

[jacquesy]

I am developing a website that acts as a portal of digital cameras.

As the pinicle of my site I am going to design a search area.

This seach is going to offer the user 7 select lists where they will be able to select their specific camera characteristics.

e.g.

Select Required Megapixels:
Select required Resolution:
Select required Lens:
Select required Memory Type:
etc...........

In each select list there will also be an option that allows the user to not specify. e.g. Select megapixels: Not specified (select all cameras irrespective of its megapixels)

I have done searches before where I simply add a value into a query. The problem is that there are many different values going into this one query, how do I organise the comma's and stop the not specified going into the query??

I get stuck here because:

1. The query requires coma's to sepeate each search used, if a user does not use one of the select lists it should not be added to the query, I dont know how to organise this to structure the query properly.
2. I dont want lots and lots of "if" statements

What are the best ways to overcome these problems? a class? a function?

Thanks for you help!

😃

[WinterDragon]

just a random toss in the mud here...

Put the one that says "Not selected, or not specified" or whatever its called...
<select name="Megapixel">Mega Pixiel thingies...
<option> Not selected</option>
<option value="100000x120000">A big thingie!</option>
</select>

$query = "";
foreach($_POST as $i) {
if($i) {
$query .= "$i, ";
} else {
#Don't put a damn query then fool!
}
}
echo $query;

Now this is just a slap in the mouth, I Have no clue about cameras, or resolution in megapixels or whatever, but... That could be what you're looking for