displaying only specific data from a database through searching

morpheusoptic

I was wondering how I can allow users to be able search through a database and only have it bring back the results they are looking for. I came here earlier for a question about variables, that was finally resolved thanks to everyone that helped. This is for a free classified ad section on my website... so the search would be for that site.

Say the database has the seller name in it, product, product category, price of product, location of seller such as city and state, phone number, etc etc.

If I make a page where the user can search between 2 price ranges, select a specific location, product type, etc. How would I make that single out specific entries in the database and only show what is relevant to the users search?

There are plenty of places that use searches like this such as all the dating websites, ebay, alibaba.com, etc...... so I know it is pretty common, however I almost would need to find a php script that currently does this so I can figure out how it is done. If anybody has any tutorials or scripts that show how this can be done, please pass them along.

I already know how to take all the data in the database and spit it out on a page in a table, just the weeding out no-relevant info is what I don't know.

Thanks,

Paul

Roger_Ramjet

If you already know how to select alnd display all of the data then you just need to learn how to use a WHERE clause. The hardest part is going to be to make it flexible enough for users who eg. do not want to limit to a price range or location.

Starting with the basics


// specify category

$sql= "SELECT * FROM products WHERE category='$cat' ORDER BY price";

// specify multiple categories

$sql= "SELECT * FROM products WHERE category='$cat1' OR category='$cat2' ORDER BY price";

// specify minimum price

$sql= "SELECT * FROM products WHERE price>=$l_price ORDER BY price";

// specify max price

$sql= "SELECT * FROM products WHERE price<=$u_price ORDER BY price";

// specify price range

$sql= "SELECT * FROM products WHERE price>=$l_price AND price<=$u_price ORDER BY price";

// and so on

As you can see, we can use multiple conditions in the WHERE clause using AND/OR accordingly.
Now to build this you will need to test for each user input field and concatenate the relevent phrase to the Where clause when present - that's the hard part.