Search by firstname and username in one input box.

siabanie

Hi guys,

Can anyone assist me, I want to make a search box to search by surname or / and firstname, but not separates boxes. Only one form to include that.

E.g User key in the box either surname or firstname in the same box.


$do_search = false;

if ( !empty($_POST) ) {

		if (empty( $_POST['firstname']) ) {

			$_POST['firstname'] = '%';
		}
		else {

			$_POST['firstname'] = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['firstname']);
		}

		if (empty( $_POST['surname']) ) {

			$_POST['surname'] = '%';
		}
		else {

			$_POST['surname'] = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['surname']);
		}
}

<html>
...
<label for="surname">Surname:</label>
<input id="surname" name="surname" type="text" size="20" maxlength="25" />
<label for="firstname">First Name:</label>
<input id="firstname" name="firstname" type="text" size="20" maxlength="25" />
..
..
</html>

PHP

..
..
$query = "SELECT `firstname`, `surname` FROM profile WHERE surname LIKE '{$_POST['surname']}' AND firstname LIKE '{$_POST['firstname']}'";
..
..

Thanks.

dagon

and the problem is?

siabanie

The problem is: instead of having two separate input boxes I wonder if I can make it one instead? And that box able to do search by firstname and surname.

How can I do that?

dagon

one box make the search and\or
or
one box and radio buttons for which to search on

siabanie

Oh..ok, so I have to change the query from AND to OR. I will try.

But shall we still have these two boxes in our page? As I only need on box but able to do both search.

<html>
..
..
<label for="surname">Surname:</label>
<input id="surname" name="surname" type="text" size="20" maxlength="25" />
<label for="firstname">First Name:</label>
<input id="firstname" name="firstname" type="text" size="20" maxlength="25" />
..
..</html>

How can I just use one box input instead of two then?

Edit: Can you give me the snippet of it please?

siabanie

Can you give me the snippet of it please?

dagon

siabanie;10975471 wrote:
How can I just use one box input instead of two then?

just remove one

siabanie

dagon;10975473 wrote:
just remove one

So, I do not need the one that I commented out? or do I have to change like #2😕

...
...
$do_search = false;

if ( !empty($_POST) ) {
	if ( $_POST['submit'] == 'Search' ) {
		$do_search = true;

//firstname commented out
		/*	if (empty( $_POST['firstname']) ) {

			$_POST['firstname'] = '%';
		}
		else {

	$_POST['firstname'] = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['firstname']);
		} */

		if (empty( $_POST['surname']) ) {

			$_POST['surname'] = '%';
		}
		else {

			$_POST['surname'] = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['surname']);
		}
	}
}

change to this:
#2

if (empty( $_POST['firstname']) || empty( $_POST['surname'])) {

			$_POST['firstname'] = '%';
			$_POST['surname'] = '%';
		}
		else {

($_POST['firstname'] = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['firstname']) || $_POST['surname'] = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['surname']));
			}

..
..
<form method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>">
<div style="text-align:right;">
	<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Search" />
	<label for="surname">Surname:</label>
	<input id="surname" name="surname" type="text" size="20" maxlength="25" />
//Commented out the first name
	<!--label for="firstname">First Name:</label>
	<input id="firstname" name="firstname" type="text" size="20" maxlength="25" /-->

..
..
$query = "SELECT `firstname`, `surname` FROM profile WHERE surname LIKE '{$_POST['surname']}' OR firstname LIKE '{$_POST['firstname']}'";
..
..

dagon

your still referring to firstname in your php even though your not using that form name anymore

siabanie

Well if I commented the firstname in PHP then I will get error:

Notice: Undefined index: firstname in line 80

line 80: $query = "SELECT firstname, surname FROM profile WHERE surname LIKE '{$POST['surname']}' OR firstname LIKE '{$POST['firstname']}'";

dagon

because you are not posting firstname any more, your only using one field currently names surname

siabanie

Ok sorry if I didn't get this: but I want to do search either by surname or firstname.

So you suggested me to change the query into:

$query = "SELECT `firstname`, `surname` FROM profile WHERE surname LIKE '{$_POST['surname']}'";

...by doing this then I will not get seach by firstname... Hmmmm..

dagon

your using the surname field from the form for both surname and firstname (perhaps renaming it would be less confusing)

change form input name to name then:

$query = "SELECT `firstname`, `surname` FROM profile WHERE surname LIKE '{$_POST['name']}' OR firstname LIKE '{$_POST['name']}' ";

siabanie

Ah i see oh thanks alot... !! It works prefect now! 😃😃😃

Thanks!

dagon

one last thing, never use a variable from a user directly in the db

you want to apply mysql_real_escape_string() to $_POST['name']

siabanie

What do you mean by

dagon;10975491 wrote:
never use a variable from a user directly in the db

you want to apply mysql_real_escape_string() to $_POST['name']

Explain more please...😃

Thanks.

dagon

did you read the link i provided.

siabanie

Yes thanks dagon, I still not fully understand how to use and the function of it but as far as I know...I have to apply the..:

mysql_real_escape_string()

to prevent hijacking.

One question: I have added another statement 'dept' on the query now it looks like this:

$query = "SELECT `firstname`, `surname` FROM profile WHERE surname LIKE '{$_POST['name']}' OR firstname LIKE '{$_POST['name']}'  AND dept.id LIKE '{$_POST['dept']}'") ";

I have created the input textbox for it but when I try to do seach by dept there isn't any results. Can you tell me what I did wrong?

dagon

a simply way:

$_POST['name']=mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['name']);

before you use the var in the query

dept.id

currently your searching the profile db, should that be dept_id or something else as the dot indicates another table.

siabanie

Ok well my tables are like this:

Table DEPT:
-id
-dept_name

Table PERSONS
-id
-dept_id
-firstname
-surname
-address-

Table USERS
-id
-username
-password

So the persons.dept_id == dept.id

I will look into it again - I will double check and let you know if it has sorted - but thanks alot.

I wonder if I can ask you; I am doing a login page at the moment - I am creating an admin which can have than one using ie: level either 1 or 0 determine either user or admin.

Do you know any good tutorial for that? I have done my login page but it only has one admin and I don't how to make more than one admin.

Any suggestion? Thanks.