Verifying if user exists

Anon

How does one go about verifying if a user has already signed up in the database? I was using the ROWID to loop through the NAME, and BUSNAME columns to verify them, but because the ROWID is unique that fell over on me. So what approach do you suggest? ANy help welcomed, thanks in advance!

Marcel.

Anon

Why not just query your database?

for example:

SELECT count(*) FROM table WHERE NAME="$username" AND BUSNAME="$BUSNAME"

or something like that (put in whatever you need to verify that a user exists)
If this returns "1" then the user was found.
if it returns "0" the user was not found (and thus doesn't exist)

Anon

Ahhh, perfect. Now what if a user changes the spelling slightly...for example: Joe Piscopo or next time, Joe G. Piscopo...the added initial 'appears' to be a new entrant but in fact is a duplicate. Is there a 'like' query I can use?

Thanks for your help, Vincent...haven't heard from you in a while. Happy Holidays. 🙂

Marcel.

Anon

Store the first, last and middle names as separate fields in a database.

Anon

And happy holidays to you too Marcel.
haven't heard from me in a while? I thought I was leaving quite a trail here in the forums :-)

Anyway, indeed there is a LIKE in SQL, there are even more complex ways of finding "similar sounding" names (check out the MySQL and PHP manual for functions like soundex()) but the problem is: where do you draw the line?

What if Joe P. and a Joe F. P. really are two different people?

Anon

Oh don't get me wrong Vincent, you do leave your 'mark'! I just haven't had your direct correspondence in a while. 🙂

I agree, where do you draw the line? Problem is my database is already filled and to alter it would prove to create more problems than it's worth. I'll rethink my options.

Thanks for the input...had to sneak on here in the middle of the X-mas stuff to check my emails. Work never seems to be done!

Thanks again,
Marcel.