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PHP Discussion Thread
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Views: 610

Oct 26th, 2009

Wild Card search not working...

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Hey, I need to create a search engine that searchs through a database but the wild card doesn't work for me:

PHP Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
<?php
   include ('header.php');
   $s = $_POST['search_term'];
   $by = $_POST['by'];
 
   if(!$s && $by) // Check that the details are entered correctly
   { 
      echo '<p>You have not entered the required fields</p>';
      exit();
   }
    //  LIKE '%$searchterm%' 
              $query = "SELECT * FROM products WHERE artist LIKE '% $s %'";
              $result = mysql_query($query) or trigger_error("Query: $query \n<br />Mysql error: 		 " . mysql_error());
 
              if(mysql_affected_rows() >= 1)
              {
                 while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
                 {
                     echo '<p>Your search result for ' .$search_term. '';
                     echo '<blockquote>';
                     echo '<img src="' .$row['pic']. '">';
                     echo '<p>' .$row['desc']. '<br />';
                     echo 'Price: ' .$row['price']. '<br />';
                     echo '</blockquote>';
                  }
                }else{
                  echo '<p>No artist found, did you spell it right?</p>';
                }
 
?>
<?php
   include ('header.php');
   $s = $_POST['search_term'];
   $by = $_POST['by'];
   
   if(!$s && $by) // Check that the details are entered correctly
   { 
      echo '<p>You have not entered the required fields</p>';
      exit();
   }
    //  LIKE '%$searchterm%' 
              $query = "SELECT * FROM products WHERE artist LIKE '% $s %'";
              $result = mysql_query($query) or trigger_error("Query: $query \n<br />Mysql error: 		 " . mysql_error());

              if(mysql_affected_rows() >= 1)
              {
                 while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
                 {
                     echo '<p>Your search result for ' .$search_term. '';
                     echo '<blockquote>';
                     echo '<img src="' .$row['pic']. '">';
                     echo '<p>' .$row['desc']. '<br />';
                     echo 'Price: ' .$row['price']. '<br />';
                     echo '</blockquote>';
                  }
                }else{
                  echo '<p>No artist found, did you spell it right?</p>';
                }
     
?>

Any help would be great. Thanks.

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Phil++

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Posting Whiz in Training

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233 posts
since Jan 2009

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Oct 26th, 2009

Re: Wild Card search not working...

Remove the spaces between the %s and the value.

If the user entered 'Google' then the search query would look like:

PHP Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)

$query = "SELECT * FROM products WHERE artist LIKE '% Google %'";

This would return values where the products column had an entry of 'something Google something'

Will Gresham

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since May 2008

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Oct 27th, 2009

Re: Wild Card search not working...

Hey.

Also, on line #15 you use the mysql_affected_rows function, where you should be using the mysql_num_rows function.

The mysql_affected_rows function only returns the number or rows affected by INSERT, UPDATE, REPLACE or DELETE queries. SELECT queries have no affect on any rows, and as such, the function doesn't return a valid result for them.

Atli

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since May 2007

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Oct 27th, 2009

Re: Wild Card search not working...

if your query is failing try to echo the query and execute it directly in the mysql and post if any error you getting there. or else post the error you echoing in your php

network18

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since Sep 2009

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Oct 27th, 2009

Re: Wild Card search not working...

Also addslashes(); to your search term somtimes users entering quotes can cause sql to fail.

liamfriel

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since Oct 2009

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Oct 27th, 2009

Re: Wild Card search not working...

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

Also addslashes(); to your search term somtimes users entering quotes can cause sql to fail.

The mysql_real_escape_string function would be better. It does more than just add slashes, it escapes any char that would mess up the query.

It should be used on any data that is to be inserted into a MySQL query, especially user-supplied data. (See SQL Injection)

Last edited by Atli; Oct 27th, 2009 at 1:18 pm.

Atli

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since May 2007

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Oct 28th, 2009

Re: Wild Card search not working...

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

The mysql_real_escape_string function would be better. It does more than just add slashes, it escapes any char that would mess up the query.

It should be used on any data that is to be inserted into a MySQL query, especially user-supplied data. (See SQL Injection)

Thanks - I have spent so long using a custom function(that uses mysql_real_escape_string()) to validate my data I forgot about it.

If anyone is interested:

PHP Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
function make_safe($string) {
    $string = preg_replace('#<!\[CDATA\[.*?\]\]>#s', '', $string);
    $string = strip_tags($string);
    $string = htmlentities($string, ENT_NOQUOTES, 'UTF-8', false);
    $string = stripslashes($string);
    $string = mysql_real_escape_string($string);
    return $string;
}
function make_safe($string) {
    $string = preg_replace('#<!\[CDATA\[.*?\]\]>#s', '', $string);
    $string = strip_tags($string);
    $string = htmlentities($string, ENT_NOQUOTES, 'UTF-8', false);
    $string = stripslashes($string);
    $string = mysql_real_escape_string($string);
    return $string;
}

liamfriel

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101 posts
since Oct 2009

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Oct 28th, 2009

Re: Wild Card search not working...

Double post please delete

Last edited by liamfriel; Oct 28th, 2009 at 10:51 am. Reason: double post - please delete

liamfriel

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Solved Threads: 13

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since Oct 2009

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