Drop-down box breaks MySQL script

[StevenHu]

I don't know why the following script is returning 0 rows. Before I added the $brandselect drop-down box to fine-tune the choice, everything was working fine.

<?php 

if (isset($_POST['text'])) 
    { 
    if (!preg_match('|^[ .0-9a-zA-Z -]+$|' , $_POST['text'])) 
    exit("<p class='msgbanner2'><strong>Please try again without using punctuation.</strong></p>");
    } 
// $text is info typed into search box. 
// $cols is the radio button checked for the number of columns desired.
// $brandselect is the brand selected.

    $text = $_POST['text']; 
    $text = strtolower($text); // MAKE LOWERCASE 
    $text = strip_tags($text); // REMOVE SYMBOLS 
    $text = trim($text);       // REMOVE ANY EXTRA WHITE SPACE AT END OF LINE 
    $text = htmlspecialchars($text);
    
    $cols = $_POST['cols']; 
    $cols = strtolower($cols); // MAKE LOWERCASE 
    $cols = strip_tags($cols); // REMOVE SYMBOLS 
    $cols = trim($cols);       // REMOVE ANY EXTRA WHITE SPACE AT END OF LINE 
    $cols = htmlspecialchars($cols);

    $brandselect = $_POST['brandselect']; 
    $brandselect = strtolower($brandselect); // MAKE LOWERCASE 
    $brandselect = strip_tags($brandselect); // REMOVE SYMBOLS 
    $brandselect = trim($brandselect);       // REMOVE ANY EXTRA WHITE SPACE AT END OF LINE 
    $brandselect = htmlspecialchars($brandselect);

// If chose to search within single brand
$where = "WHERE (PartNo LIKE '$text' OR ItemName LIKE '%$text%' OR Descr LIKE '%$text%') AND Brand = '$brandselect'";

// If chose to search among all brands ("allbrands" in drop-down box)
if ($brandselect == 'allbrands')
{ $where = "WHERE PartNo LIKE '$text' OR ItemName LIKE '%$text%' OR Descr LIKE '%$text%'"; }

$plq = mysql_query 
(    "SELECT Photo, PartNo, ItemName, MSRP, Descr, Brand, DateCreated
    FROM aeproducts
    $where
    ORDER BY DateCreated DESC" 
); 

$message = array(
    "<p class='msgbanner1'><strong>ERROR. Please try again another time.</strong></p>",
    "<p class='msgbanner1'><strong>Sorry, I cannot find that information. Please check your typing and try again.</strong></p>",
    "<p class='msgbanner2'>You searched for <strong>$text</strong></p>",
    "<p class='msgbanner2'><strong>Please try again without using punctuation.</strong></p>"
    );
?>

When $where used to be ...

WHERE (PartNo LIKE '$text' OR ItemName LIKE '%$text%' OR Descr LIKE '%$text%') AND $Brand = reedy 

... it worked fine. Now I want the value of "$Brand = reedy" to be dependent on a drop-down box to narrow the search further.

Thanks!
Steve

[Aras]

Do a var_dump($where), see the query and make sure its valid.

[StevenHu]

Do a var_dump($where), see the query and make sure its valid.

I did a var_dump($where) and got no message. I don't get any error messages, but the message that no rows were returned. Puzzling.