Need correct syntax for WHERE clause using multiple OR

[StevenHu]

I need the correct syntax for the following. The following works (it correctly searches and retrieves the term for searching), but I know there is a shorter way to write the WHERE clause to search the three columns:

$searchtext = $_POST['searchtext'];
if ($searchtext != '') { // Some search text was specified
  $where .= " AND vehicle_name LIKE '%$searchtext%' OR owner_name LIKE '%$searchtext%' OR descr LIKE '%$searchtext%'";
} 

This short form does not work:

AND vehicle_name, OR owner_name, OR descr LIKE '%$searchtext%'"; 

This doesn't work either:

AND vehicle_name, owner_name, descr LIKE '%$searchtext%'"; 

The basic code comes from page 127 of Kevin's Build Your Own DB Driven Website book.

Thanks!

Steve

[r937]

AND (
    vehicle_name LIKE '%$searchtext%'
 OR owner_name LIKE '%$searchtext%'
 OR descr LIKE '%$searchtext%'
    )

the parentheses are extremely important since you have an AND which combines these conditions with the rest of the WHERE clause

[StevenHu]

OK, thanks. So there is no shorter way to do it. I appreciate the reply!

[r937]

well, there is one way, but i don't like it...

AND CONCAT(vehicle_name, owner_name, descr)
       LIKE '%$searchtext%'

occasionally you might get a false hit if the string you're looking for happens to span two columns