PHP Code will not lookup Data from MySQL DB.

houston08

Hello All! I have come here many times because I always get great support and my problems are generally fixed the same day. Unfortunately, I've forgotten my username. :p

I have 2 Pages of PHP. One where it you can specify what to search for, and what category's.

					<form name="search" method="post" action="search.php">
					Search for: <input type="text" name="find" /> in
					<Select NAME="field">
					<Option VALUE="phone">Phone</option>
					<Option VALUE="last_name">Last Name</option>
					<Option VALUE="address_1">Address</option>
					<Option VALUE="email">E-mail</option>
					</Select>
					<input type="submit" name="search" value="Search" />
					</form>

And here is the search page:

<?

mysql_connect("localhost", "user", "password") or die("Unable to connect to database.");
@mysql_select_db("database") or die("Unable to select database $DBName");

$field=$_POST['field'];
$find=$_POST['find'];

echo $field;
echo $find;

$data = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM contacts WHERE '$field' LIKE '%$find%'") or die(mysql_error()); 
while($result = mysql_fetch_array($data))

?>

I know that the search that I performed is getting passed to the next page, but the problem is, the PHP page just posted above either won't perform the search, or I have something set wrong? Any Help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

halojoy

Any ERROR reports ... error on line xxx
Any other Symptoms, that gave you the idea that no search is being done?

It is not that I am curious.
It is just that The More details we know ... The more chance you get Quick help.

Regars

houston08

I changed the code up a bit, to get me an error if there was one. sure enough there was.

while($result = mysql_fetch_array($data) or die("Unable to get Data Array: Line 14"));

Thats the updated code. The error happens all the time, so it's gotta be either from that, or this string right above it:

$data = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM contacts WHERE '$field' LIKE '%$find%'") or die(mysql_error());

I don't know which one. So I guess I'll be looking into both?

houston08

Could it be that I'm using a array?

halojoy

hi
I want to know this
because there is maybe a reason for this I do not know about MySQL query

WHERE '$field' LIKE '%$find%'"

Why you write %$find% .. but not %$field%
Or to put it more likely:
Why you use '$field' ... but NOT '$find', simply
They are both POST variables of same sort.
Still you treat them differently in your query.

I am TOO LOGICALLY minded to easily accept this difference

Thanks for an explanation
halojoy

houston08

Well I ready that adding the % sign before and after the word, will help getting more search results. I believe it was explained like this. That say my word is cat.
Adding % before cat means there could be more text before the actual word.
Adding % after cat means there could be more text after the word.
Adding % before and after cat means there could be text before and after the word.

I thought that this would help with search results, namely in last names. Even though I don't think we will need it, because the information should always be 100% accurate, i thought I should put it in, just in case. So at the moment, I really have no problem of taking it out either.