Querying a Db with user input

[Anon]

Hi,
I\'ve I\'ve inherited a form design which allows a user to specify 0-9 search parameters for searching a database, but I\'m confused as to the best way to deal with this and have only found articles were there are 1 or 2 query parameters.

Do I have to specify the 80+ possible conditions here, can anyone help me?!
Thanks

[sarahk]

Hi Lucy

without knowing your table structure and what the search might be like it's hard to advise. However I would thought you would just have

$sqlstr = "select * from searchtable where ";
if (isset($search1))
$sqlstr .= " name = '$search1'";
if (isset($search2))
$sqlstr .= "or name = '$search2'";

and so on...

If you have to apply the search criteria to a number of fields or tables then yes, your queries could become quite complicated.