having trouble inserting into mysql

[rekrablc]

My problem is I cannot figure out how to check to see if a record is already in the database. This is the table stucture,

author_id pk auto_increment
au_Fn varchar(35)
au_Ln varchar(2)
au_Mn varchar(35)

here the code I'm using right now,

$hostname = "localhost";
$database = "mm";
$username = "root";
$password = "";
$mormon_memorabilla = mysql_pconnect($hostname, $username, $password) or trigger_error(mysql_error("You connected sucessfully"),E_USER_ERROR);
mysql_select_db($database, $mm);

$result = mysql_query('SELECT au_Fn, au_Mn, au_Ln FROM authors WHERE au_Fn, au_Mn, au_Ln LIKE "'.$POST['au_Fn'].'", "'.$POST['au_Mn'].'", "'.$POST['au_Ln'].'"');
if (mysql_num_rows($result))
{
echo "Sorry! It already exists. Try again";
}
else
{
if(isset($POST ['Submit']))
{
echo "Inserting Name into the database<br>";
// First Insert
$query = "INSERT INTO authors VALUES ( NULL, '$POST[au_Fn]', '$POST[au_Mn]', '$POST[au_Ln]')";
mysql_query($query, $mm;
if ( (!empty($POST['tau_Fn'])) && (!empty($POST['tau_Mn'])) && (!empty($POST['tau_Ln'])) )
{
$query = "INSERT INTO authors VALUES ( NULL, '$POST[tau_Fn]', '$POST[tau_Mn]', '$_POST[tau_Ln]')";
mysql_query($query, $mm);
}
}
}
//if (!isset(mysql_query($sql, $mm))
// {
// }
?>

[bradgrafelman]

Ok... are you trying to see if ANY of the 3 fields match a row already inserted, or if they ALL match a row inserted?

Also, are you trying to do an exact match? i.e. searching for "cat" should not match "catdog".

EDIT: Also, please use the board's [ PHP ] [ /PHP ] tags when posting your code, also indenting and closing up deadspace for readability.

[rekrablc]

I am trying to check if the specific name is in the database and if it is then prevent that name from being entered again and if name is not in the database then the name will be inderted