Search function on website php sql

Question

I have a simple search box on my website which for now only produces results based on certain criteria being met.

if(isset($_GET['action'])&&isset($_GET['searchbox'])) {
    if($_GET['searchbox']!='') {
        $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `restaurants` WHERE `restaurant` LIKE '%{$_GET['searchbox']}%'");  // RESULT IS FIND EVERYTHING THAT MATCHES SEARCH FROM TABLE //
    } else {
        $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `restaurants`");
    }
}

<form action="search.php" id="searchform" method="get" class="searchbox-container">
    <input type="text" id="searchbox" name="searchbox" class="searchbox" />
    <input type="submit" class="searchbox-btn" value="Search" />
    <input type="hidden" name="action" value="search" />

What i want is for the search box to return a result from the database from all table data not just specific data such as restaurant names.

I also want it to work so that if someone searches for "sto" then results such as "stoke" will show up, so the search doesnt have to be exactly what is in the database.

excuse the code if it is wrong or out of date, this was taken from a university tutorial which is a little old.

Please, don't use mysql_* functions in new code. They are no longer maintained and are officially deprecated. See the red box? Learn about prepared statements instead, and use PDO or MySQLi - this article will help you decide which. If you choose PDO, here is a good tutorial. — ulentini
– ulentini, Commented Apr 6, 2013 at 15:51

Nick Cardoso · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-06 15:27:08Z

3

There's no way to just search everything in a database using MySql, you'll still need to choose which columns to search in which tables. You can search different data with different queries then join the results in PHP or do some kind of JOIN. If you're not careful though you'll end up with something entirely inefficient.

One more note - this should already match partial words as you have it - the %'s around your search term in the LIKE clause means 'any characters in this position'

To search more fields in your restaurant, you could start with the following (if you have a slogan for instance):

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `restaurants` WHERE `restaurant` LIKE '%{$_GET['searchbox']}%' OR `slogan` LIKE '%{$_GET['searchbox']}%'");

You should not be injecting the user input directly into the SQL though, it leaves you open to attack!

To search more fields in other tables using a JOIN, you could start with the following (if you have a food table for instance):

$result = mysql_query("SELECT `restaurants`.* FROM `restaurants` LEFT JOIN `food` ON `food`.`restaurant_id` = `restaurant`.`id` WHERE `restaurant` LIKE '%{$_GET['searchbox']}%' OR `food` LIKE '%{$_GET['searchbox']}%'");

You can look at these two pages if you need help with what I've just given you:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/select.html

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/join.html

edited Aug 6, 2015 at 15:27

answered Apr 6, 2013 at 16:01

Nick Cardoso

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1 Comment

FoamyMedia Over a year ago

thanks the OR function was what i was looking for. and yes sorry needed quick help with assignment as struggling all day!

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