coding a multi-field search from a form

[tcarnes]

I am starting a project where I have to search a SQL table based on multiple fields filled out in a form.

I was wondering if someone can point me to code that has already been worked out for this, before I start re-inventing the wheel.

My $_request will look something like this:

title = Poly
patno
issdate
appno
fildate
pubno
pubdate = 2003*
apptype = 4
status = 0
stadate

where the values may be blank, dates, text, even text including wildcards.

So I need to loop through the Request variables and based on whether or not they contained values and or wildcards, I need to contruct the WHERE clause of the sql query.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

Terry

[void_function]

I don't have the code here, but I had similar problem. I resolved it by creating an array of WHERE clauses:

if (isset($_POST['key'])) $where[]= 'key=' . $_POST['key'];

Of course, this is oversimplified. Make sure you clear the $_POST vars for XSS or SQL injection. If there are wildcards:

$where[]= 'key LIKE ' . $_POST['wildcarded_key'];  // replace the wildcard with %

And then construct the query WHERE part:

$wh= (count($wh)) ? implode(', ', $where) : NULL;

$query= "SELECT this FROM that " . $wh;

Something like that.

[tcarnes]

Thanks for your help. I ended up creating an array of query portions which I then iterated through creating my Where clause.

That seemed to work!