A newbie that needs your help

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jigani
Forum Newbie
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2004 5:22 am

A newbie that needs your help

Post by jigani »

hi fellas. first, just wanted to say what a great forum this is. well am a newbie to this whole php/mysql web development. am working on a project for uni and i have a very simple question and would like your help. Don't let the length of my post scare u, its nothing.

I used the search script which was posted in this topic:
http://www.designplace.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=50

Am trying to search by name. I used the following sql statement:

$query = "select * from contacts where name like \"%$trimmed%\"

Now that works fine. The thing is that if i enter a single letter (not a string starting letter), it would still yield results.

For example i have the following data in the database:

Name Number
John 45
Jason 98
Katie 34

If i put only the letter o , it will give me back 2 results being john and jason although they dont start with an o.

What i would like to do is allow the script to search for partial or full matching results. For example, if i enter ka or k or katie, i want it to give me back katie.

Am not sure how to do that?

Can you please help me. That would be greatly appreciated.

Here is the script:

<HTML>
<BODY>

<?

// Get the search variable from URL

$var = @$_GET['q'] ;
$trimmed = trim($var); //trim whitespace from the stored variable

// rows to return
$limit=10;

// check for an empty string and display a message.
if ($trimmed == "")
{
echo "<p>Please enter a search...</p>";
exit;
}

// check for a search parameter
if (!isset($var))
{
echo "<p>We dont seem to have a search parameter!</p>";
exit;
}


mysql_connect("localhost","root",""); //connect to your database
mysql_select_db("test"); //select which database we're using


// Build MySql Query
$query = "select * from contacts where name like \"%$trimmed%\"
order by name"; // EDIT HERE and specify your table and field names for the SQL query

$numresults=mysql_query($query);
$numrows=mysql_num_rows($numresults);

// If we have no results, offer a google search as an alternative

if ($numrows == 0)
{
echo "<h4>Results</h4>";
echo "<p>Sorry, your search: "" . $trimmed . "" returned zero results</p>";

// google
echo "<p><a href=\"http://www.google.com/search?q="
. $trimmed . "\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Look up
" . $trimmed . " on Google\">Click here</a> to try the
search on google</p>";
}

// next determine if s has been passed to script, if not use 0
if (empty($s)) {
$s=0;
}

// get results
$query .= " limit $s,$limit";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die("Couldn't execute query");

// display what the person searched for
echo "<p>You searched for: "" . $var . ""</p>";

// begin to show results set
echo "Results";
$count = 1 + $s ;

// now you can display the results returned
while ($row= mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
$title = $row["1st_field"];

echo "$count.)&nbsp;$title" ;
$count++ ;
}

$currPage = (($s/$limit) + 1);

//break before paging
echo "<br />";

// next we need to do the links to other results
if ($s>=1) { // bypass PREV link if s is 0
$prevs=($s-$limit);
print "&nbsp;<a href=\"$PHP_SELF?s=$prevs&q=$var\"><<
Prev 10</a>&nbsp&nbsp;";
}

// calculate number of pages needing links
$pages=intval($numrows/$limit);

// $pages now contains int of pages needed unless there is a remainder from division

if ($numrows%$limit) {
// has remainder so add one page
$pages++;
}

// check to see if last page
if (!((($s+$limit)/$limit)==$pages) && $pages!=1) {

// not last page so give NEXT link
$news=$s+$limit;

echo "&nbsp;<a href=\"$PHP_SELF?s=$news&q=$var\">Next 10 >></a>";
}

$a = $s + ($limit) ;
if ($a > $numrows) { $a = $numrows ; }
$b = $s + 1 ;
echo "<p>Showing results $b to $a of $numrows</p>";

?>

</BODY>
</HTML>
User avatar
markl999
DevNet Resident
Posts: 1972
Joined: Thu Oct 16, 2003 5:49 pm
Location: Manchester (UK)

Post by markl999 »

Looks like you just need to change :
$query = "select * from contacts where name like \"%$trimmed%\"
order by name";

to:

$query = "select * from contacts where name like '$trimmed%'
order by name";

The % is mysql's wildcard (like *) so by removing the first % the query now says, select name from contacts where name starts with $trimmed. I've also used single quotes around $trimmed, as it looks a bit tidier ;)
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