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Sep 17th, 2009

Search with multiple search terms used

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Hi. I tried looking for this problem on Google, and found a lot, but nothing that actually seems to work. I basically have a search script that works fine when using one keyword, but when one uses more than that, it returns every single row per keyword. So a search for "hello kitty" doesn't look for "hello" and "kitty", but for "hello" and then another time for "kitty".

I know there's something wrong with my code, but, what? And how can I solve this issue.

PHP Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
// get the search variable from URL
$var = @$_GET['q'] ;
// trim whitespace from the stored variable
$trimmed = trim($var);  
// separate key-phrases into keywords
$trimmed_array = explode(" ",$trimmed);
 
// build SQL Query for each keyword entered 
foreach ($trimmed_array as $trimm)
{
 
	$query = "SELECT * FROM (articles LEFT JOIN authors ON articles.author_id = authors.author_id) WHERE text LIKE '%$trimm%' ORDER BY issue DESC" ;
 
	// and then the queries and everything; with which nothing's wrong
 
}
// get the search variable from URL
$var = @$_GET['q'] ;
// trim whitespace from the stored variable
$trimmed = trim($var);  
// separate key-phrases into keywords
$trimmed_array = explode(" ",$trimmed);

// build SQL Query for each keyword entered 
foreach ($trimmed_array as $trimm)
{
	
	$query = "SELECT * FROM (articles LEFT JOIN authors ON articles.author_id = authors.author_id) WHERE text LIKE '%$trimm%' ORDER BY issue DESC" ;

	// and then the queries and everything; with which nothing's wrong

}

Can someone help me?

Last edited by empoor; Sep 17th, 2009 at 5:16 pm. Reason: clarification

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php search script - multiple search terms? in PHP

empoor

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Sep 17th, 2009

Re: Search with multiple search terms used

Explode on spaces and use ORs for the extra terms. http://php.net/explode

ShawnCplus

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Code Monkey

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Sep 18th, 2009

Re: Search with multiple search terms used

Click to Expand / Collapse Quote originally posted by ShawnCplus ...

Explode on spaces and use ORs for the extra terms. http://php.net/explode

I'm already using explode to separate terms. And shouldn't it be "AND", 'cause I want the results to match all the results. It's basically already doing an "OR" search, which results in duplicate search results showing.

empoor

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Sep 19th, 2009

Re: Search with multiple search terms used

I have solved the issue myself by trying to fix things with experimentation.

My first problem was that the code I used to remove duplicate entries from the search array was basically looping twice. So, I edited the source to keep it from looping twice.

PHP Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
	do
		{
			$adid_array[] = $row['page_id'];
		}
 
	while($row = mysql_fetch_array($numresults));
	do
		{
			$adid_array[] = $row['page_id'];
		}
	
	while($row = mysql_fetch_array($numresults));

PHP Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
	$tmparr = array_unique($adid_array); 
	$i = 0; 
	foreach ($tmparr as $newarr_v)
		{ 
			$newarr[$i] = $newarr_v; 
			$i++; 
		}
	$tmparr = array_unique($adid_array); 
	$i = 0; 
	foreach ($tmparr as $newarr_v)
		{ 
			$newarr[$i] = $newarr_v; 
			$i++; 
		}

And then I use newarr to execute the search query (with foreach).

Secondly, because this is my first experience with building a search page, I used stock code and didn't notice that it was erroneously building a query for each keyword entered, instead of a query that incorporates all keywords (if multiple). So I removed

PHP Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
foreach ($search_array as $search_keyword)
foreach ($search_array as $search_keyword)

, and wrote a little code to separate each keyword with AND.

PHP Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
$var = addslashes(htmlspecialchars($_GET['q'])) ;
// trim whitespace from the stored variable
$trimmed = trim($var);  
// separate key-phrases into keywords
$trimmed_array = explode(" ",$trimmed);
// count keywords
$trimm_total = count($trimmed_array);
$i = 0;
$searchstring = '';
 
// looping to get the search string
foreach ($trimmed_array as $trimm)
{ 
	if ($i != 0 and $i != $wordcount)
	{ 
		$searchstring .= " AND ";
	} 
 
	$searchstring .= "text LIKE '%$trimm%' OR page_title LIKE '%$trimm%' OR author LIKE '%$trimm%'"; 
 
	// incrementing the value 
	$i = $i + 1; 
}
$var = addslashes(htmlspecialchars($_GET['q'])) ;
// trim whitespace from the stored variable
$trimmed = trim($var);  
// separate key-phrases into keywords
$trimmed_array = explode(" ",$trimmed);
// count keywords
$trimm_total = count($trimmed_array);
$i = 0;
$searchstring = '';

// looping to get the search string
foreach ($trimmed_array as $trimm)
{ 
	if ($i != 0 and $i != $wordcount)
	{ 
		$searchstring .= " AND ";
	} 

	$searchstring .= "text LIKE '%$trimm%' OR page_title LIKE '%$trimm%' OR author LIKE '%$trimm%'"; 
	
	// incrementing the value 
	$i = $i + 1; 
}

And now it finally works.

Last edited by empoor; Sep 19th, 2009 at 5:29 am. Reason: clarification

empoor

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Sep 19th, 2009

Re: Search with multiple search terms used

Try this

php Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
// get the search variable from URL
$var = @$_GET['q'] ;
// trim whitespace from the stored variable
$trimmed = trim($var);  
// separate key-phrases into keywords
$trimmed_array = explode(" ",$trimmed);
 
// build SQL Query for each keyword entered
$query = "SELECT * FROM (articles LEFT JOIN authors ON articles.author_id = authors.author_id) WHERE";
 
$first = true;
foreach ($trimmed_array as $trimm)
{
                if(!$first)
	{
	    $query . = " AND ";
	}
                 else
                 {
                     $first = false;
                 }
 
 
	$query = $query . " text LIKE '%$trimm%' " ;
 
	// and then the queries and everything; with which nothing's wrong
 
}
$query = $query. " ORDER BY issue DESC";
// get the search variable from URL
$var = @$_GET['q'] ;
// trim whitespace from the stored variable
$trimmed = trim($var);  
// separate key-phrases into keywords
$trimmed_array = explode(" ",$trimmed);

// build SQL Query for each keyword entered
$query = "SELECT * FROM (articles LEFT JOIN authors ON articles.author_id = authors.author_id) WHERE";
 
$first = true;
foreach ($trimmed_array as $trimm)
{
                if(!$first)
	{
	    $query . = " AND ";
	}
                 else
                 {
                     $first = false;
                 }
	
	 
	$query = $query . " text LIKE '%$trimm%' " ;
 
	// and then the queries and everything; with which nothing's wrong
 
}
$query = $query. " ORDER BY issue DESC";

Last edited by dasatti; Sep 19th, 2009 at 7:38 am.

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This thread is solved

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