Multiple ORs in sql statment

[nvinaya]

hi,
i am trying to query using multiple ORs...everything works fine as long as i have only 1 Or but if i put one more Or, then it returns all the records in the table...
$result=mysql_query("select * from register where smartCard = '$smartCard' or lastName like '%$lastName%' or firstName like '%$firstName%' " );
if i have the query like this...
whatever value i enter for the variables..
all the records are returned...
any ideas??

cheers
vinaya

[TheIceman5]

if first name or last name are blank or null it will return all records

[nvinaya]

is there any way to get rid of it....without having to code every case..

[HalfaBee]

You could check the 3 variables for "" and replace it with a random string that is unlikely to be found.

HalfaBee

[tsinka]

That could in rare cases led to problems. It might be a cleaner solution to check if those variables are empty and to add the or statements only if the variables contain anything useful.