Problem with join tables correctly

piotr

Hi,

I have two search input forms on my site - first for category, second for title search. Search results can be filtered by item features.
If you type only title (first input is empty) you can filter the results. But if you type only category or both category and title you will see correct search results but when you try to filter it you will get no records.
I have two tables: one for categories and one for items. Features are only in items table, in categories table is no info about features so maybe it is the problem. But I don't know how can I join features column with category table

Thanks in advance

MySQL query is:

$sql_search = "select it.id, it.title, it.feature_id, cat.category_id as catid, 
		FROM lr_item it
		LEFT JOIN lr_item_category cat ON it.id=cat.item_id
		LEFT JOIN lr_categories lcat ON cat.category_id=lcat.id
                where it.feature_id like '%$fea[$i]%' and it.title = '$title' 
                and lcat.title = '$cat_title' 
                GROUP BY it.id order by $column $qsort";

djjjozsi

what is the source of this $fea[$i] variable ?

UNION should help you to make a union between more then one query with different conditions.

if an item don't have a feature, the relation between the items and features table should be placed to get all rows from items table, and only related rows from features table ( LEFT JOIN )

piotr

Thanks for an answer,

I have a loop for display $fea variable - it shows checkboxes:

for($i=0;$i< count($fea);$i++)
{
$sql_search .= "  it.feature_id like '%$fea[$i]%' ";

if($i!=(count($fea)-1))
$sql_search .= " AND ";

Sorry, if I described it unprecisely but there is no feature table. It's a scheme of item table...

------------------------------------------
| id | title | feature_id | category_id  |
-------------+------------+--------------+
| 1  | a     | 1, 4       | 1,5          |
------------------------------------------

...and category table

--------------
| id | title | 
-------------+
| 1  | b     | 
--------------

If you search only by item title and then you choose checkboxes to filter results evrything works well.
If you search by category name (and) item title search results are correct. But filter gives you no results I mean it says there are no records which has features you checked. It's false so I think the problem is a query.
I can join tables by category_id but what about features?