Empty argument in query results in listing everything

[Undrium]

$query = @mysql_query("SELECT * FROM animals WHERE colour = '$colour' AND specie = '$specie' ORDER by id DESC");

The variables $colour and $specie comes from the user when he/she is searching through the database. The problem is if the user wants all the animals to be listed and chooses the variables $colour and $specie to be empty.

How do I make the query select it all if the variables are empty? I do not want to make an if(empty($colour)) statement as I plan to add more variables and it'll get complicated.

Cheers,

Undrium

[Piranha]

The best thing is to do what you don't want. Something like this:

$sql = "SELECT column FROM table WHERE ";
if (!empty($colour)) $sql .= "colour = '$colour' AND ";
if (!empty($specie)) $sql .= "specie = '$specie' AND ";
// Add more to the query
// Remove the last 4 characters from the query, you have to check how to do that
$sql .= "ORDER BY id DESC";
$query = @mysql_query($sql);

[Undrium]

Thanks, Piranha! That wasn't really the way I meant when I mentioned if statement, this'll do great! 🆒

[bradgrafelman]

Don't forget to mark this thread resolved.