'select statement' based on variables?

Anon

I'd like to create a simple search portal that allows a user to search a product database by EITHER model number OR frequency range.

To do this, I created a form that has two submit buttons, both named 'FindButton', but with two different values, 'By Model' and 'By Range'.

My theory: If the user clicks the 'By Model' button, the 'where' section of the query string (the $sql statement, 'select from where order by') should be set to the 'By Model' search criteria; if the user clicks the 'By Range' button, the 'where' section of the query string should be set to the 'By Range' search criteria.

An 'If...else' statement controls the above by testing the value in $FindButton and assigning the appropriate string to the $sql statement.

The problem is that regardless of which button is clicked, the $sql statement remains constant. In this case, it is 'stuck' on the 'By Range' criteria, even though the user may have clicked 'By Model'.

So I guess the essence of my question is, how do I implement a $sql query statement based on which submit button is clicked?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Anon

may i see your HTML and PHP code that do the work ? many things can happen here, so i think problem analysis should be done from input, that is HTML page that has two buttons ...🙂

Anon

I'll second habibi's request for a glimpse at the actual code, but meanwhile...

Instead of using two buttons, why not test the form variables themselves and issue the select based on which of them is empty?
i

Anon

Thanks for your quick response! I've licked the 'sql statement on-the-fly' problem (syntax errors, what else!), but now I'm experiencing something really frustrating. Maybe you can help:

I have a table, 'models', with a column, 'modelNo'. I can't seem to do a simple search with the following SELECT statement:

$sql="select * from models where modelNo = $modelNum";

'modelNo' is a column in the table 'models', and '$modelNum' is the variable passed by the html search form. I'm entering a valid, existing 'model number' when testing, but this statement keeps producing the 'Or Die....Bad Search' error.

When I telenet to the server and issue the exact same SELECT statement - substituting an actual Model Number for the variable $modelNum, such as: select * from models where modelNo = "SMC-06"; - mysql produces the correct results with no error.

I'll bet there is a real amateur mistake here, but I just can't seem to catch it. Once again, thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

Here's the (abbreviated) code for the HTML form and the PHP file it calls--

<head>
<title>Search</title>
</head>
<form method="post" action="testSearch.php3" name="searchOne">
<table width="621" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2">
<tr bgcolor="#660000">
<td colspan="6">
<div align="center"><b><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF">QUICK
FIND</font></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr bgcolor="#FFFFCC">
<td colspan="2">
<div align="center"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b>Search
By Model Number:</b></font></div>
</td>
<td width="215"> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">
<input type="text" name="modelNum" size="30">
</font></td>
<td colspan="3" width="160">
<div align="center"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">
</font><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">
<input type="submit" name="FindBut" value="Find Model">
</font></div>
</td>
</tr>
</body>

Here's the testSearch.php3 code called by the above HTML page--

<?php
$session=mysql_connect("localhost","root") or die ("Bad connection");
$db = mysql_select_db("modelsDB", $session) or die ("Bad database");
$sql="select * from models where modelNo = $modelNum";
$sql_result = mysql_query($sql, $session) or die ("Bad search.");
echo "<Table border=1>";
echo "<TR><TH>Model Number</TH><TH>Frequency Low</TH><TH>Frequency High</TH><TH>Gain</TH><TH>Gain Flatness</TH><TH>Noise Figure</TH><TH>VSWR Input</TH><TH>VSWR Output</TH><TH>Output Power</TH><TH>DC Power</TH><TH>Volts</TH><TH>Drawing ID</TH></TR>";
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql_result)) {
$modelNo = $row["modelNo"];
$freqLow = $row["freqLow"];
$freqHigh = $row["freqHigh"];
$gain = $row["gain"];
$gain_flat = $row["gainFlatness"];
$noise_fig = $row["noiseFigure"];
$vswrIn = $row["vswrIn"];
$vswrOut = $row["vswrOut"];
$outputPower = $row["outputPower"];
$DCpower = $row["DCpower"];
$volts = $row["volts"];
$drawingID = $row["drawingID"];
echo "<TR><font face=\"Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\" size=\"-2\"><TD>$modelNo</TD><TD>$freqLow</TD><TD>$freqHigh</TD><TD>$gain</TD><TD>$gain_flat</TD><TD>$noise_fig</TD><TD>$vswrIn</TD><TD>$vswrOut</TD><TD>$outputPower</TD><TD>$DCpower</TD><TD>$volts</TD><TD>$drawingID</TD></font></TR>";
}
echo "</table>";
mysql_free_result($sql_result);
mysql_close($session);
?>

Anon

Thanks for your quick response! I've licked the 'sql statement on-the-fly' problem (syntax errors, what else!), but now I'm experiencing something really frustrating. Maybe you can help:

I have a table, 'models', with a column, 'modelNo'. I can't seem to do a simple search with the following SELECT statement:

$sql="select * from models where modelNo = $modelNum";

I'll bet there is a real amateur mistake here, but I just can't seem to catch it. Once again, thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

Here's the (abbreviated) code for the HTML form and the PHP file it calls--

Here's the testSearch.php3 code called by the above HTML page--

Anon

try this :

$sql="select * from models where modelNo = '$modelNum'";

the difference with your code is : enclose $modelNum with single quote ('), that's the way i usually querying a non-number value in database

good luck..🙂

Anon

YOU DE MAN! THANKS!

I should have seen it!

All is working great now. Thanks again for taking the time to respond!