searching for multiple columns mysql and php

Question

i'm trying to search for multiple columns using this code:

 <?php

 // Connection Database
 $search = $_POST ['Search'];

mysql_connect("xxxxxx", "xxxxxx", "xxxxx") or die ("Error Connecting to Database");
mysql_select_db("xxxxx") or die('Error');
    $data = mysql_query("SELECT CourseName, CourseDescription, CourseLeader FROM course   MATCH (CourseName, CourseDescription, CourseLeader) AGAINST ('". $search ."')
or die('Error');
Print "<table border cellpadding=3>";
while($info = mysql_fetch_array( $data ))
 {
  Print "<tr>";
  Print "<th>Course Name:</th> <td>".$info['CourseName'] . "</td> ";
  Print "<th>Course Description:</th><td>".$info['CourseDescription'] . "</td> ";
  Print "<th>Course Leader:</th><td>".$info['CourseLeader'] . " </td></tr>";

  }
  Print "</table>";

   ?>

i'm getting the following error: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/a7105766/public_html/website/scripts/coursesearchdb.php on line 30

what am I doing wrong??

cheers

Mark Byers · Accepted Answer · 2010-05-24 22:22:06Z

3

This line is incorrect:

$data = mysql_query("SELECT ... AGAINST ('". $search ."') or die('Error');

You can even see the error from the syntax highlighting that Stack Overflow uses. Do you use syntax highlighting when developing? If not, I'd recommend it for catching exactly this sort of error.

The solution - you need to close the double-quote and the open parenthesis.

$data = mysql_query("SELECT ... AGAINST ('". $search ."')") or die('Error');

Also instead of die('Error') you could write something useful such as die(mysql_error()). You could also look at trigger_error(mysql_error()).

In your SQL you are missing the keyword WHERE. See Full-Text Search Functions in the manual for more information on full text searches.

edited May 24, 2010 at 22:22

answered May 24, 2010 at 22:02

Mark Byers

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11 Comments

Mark Byers Over a year ago

@addi: See my update: Don't use die('Error') - that's incredibly unhelpful for debugging. Change it to die(mysql_error()). This should give you the error message for your query, which should hopefully allow you to find the error yourself.

addi Over a year ago

im getting this now: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'MATCH (CourseName, CourseDescription, CourseLeader) AGAINST ('')' at line 1 no idea what it means!! is MATCH wrong?

addi Over a year ago

i added WHERE to MATCH and now i'm getting this error message: Can't find FULLTEXT index matching the column list

Mark Byers Over a year ago

@addi: Well I think that message is quite self-explanatory... you don't have a full text index for one of the columns.

addi Over a year ago

i'm sorry but i'm really new at this, do I have to add this fullindex search to my table? I don't quite understand. cheers

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