Excluding certian words from a website search

[Freejoy]

hi,

Could someone take a look at this for me and tell me how I can add a word that if searched for would return NO results? I sell angel figurines and if they put the word angels (which a lot do) it returns everything in the site. Example, they might put "angels with cats" or something like that and they'll get everything because they use the word angels.

// make sure this file isn't accessed directly via a browser
if (!defined('SC_INCLUDE_OK')) die;

// grab the search array from submitted data
$search = $_GET['search'];

// set default for mode if it was not passed
if (!$search['mode']) $search['mode'] == 'any';

// grab the search terms and put 'em in an array
if (isset($search['terms']) && is_array($search)) {
	
	if (strlen($search['terms']) == 0) {
		$Result_Message = '<div class="action_msg">You must enter search terms to perform a search!</div>';
	} else {

		// strip slashes if necessary
		if (get_magic_quotes_gpc()) $search['terms'] = stripslashes($search['terms']);
	
		// remove extra whitespace
		$search['terms'] = trim($search['terms']);

		// if terms entered start and end with a quote, then treat it as an exact match
		if ($search['terms'][0] == '"' && $search['terms'][strlen($search['terms'])-1] == '"') {
			$terms[] = str_replace('"','',$search['terms']);
		} elseif ($search['mode'] == 'exact') {
			// exact search should just use the whole value of the terms field
			$terms[] = $search['terms'];
		} else {
			// explode words into an array, one element per word and loop through them
			foreach(explode(' ',$search['terms']) as $term) {
				// remove white space
				$term = trim($term);
				// escape the term to make it safe for the query, and put it in an array
				if ($term) $terms[] = sc_mysql_escape($term);
			}
		}
		
	}

}



/********************************************************************
	Setup a MySQL query for search
********************************************************************/

if ($_GET['rpt_qry']) {
	// grab query and search fields from cache....probably just navigating to a diff. page
	$query 			= $SC['search_cache'];
	$search 		= $SC['search_flds_cache'];
	$sort_selected 	= $SC['sort_selected'];
} elseif(is_array($terms)) {
	
	// setup field names that will be searchable
	// make this configurable later
	$search_columns = array('Products.Name','Products.Description','Products.Keywords','c.Name');

	// loop through each term
	foreach($terms as $term) {
		// loop through each column that will be searched
		foreach($search_columns as $search_column) {
			// setup an array, where each element is a piece of the where string
			$where_pieces[] .= "$search_column LIKE '%$term%'";
		}
		
		// each element in the array below is a string that will search for one term, in all columns
		// like:
		// $where_strings[0] -	(Products.Name LIKE '%term1%' OR Products.Description LIKE '%term1%')
		// $where_strings[1] -	(Products.Name LIKE '%term2%' OR Products.Description LIKE '%term2%')
		$where_strings[] = '('.implode(' OR ',$where_pieces).')';
		unset($where_pieces);
	}

	// setup the where string, depending on the search mode (any, all, exact)
	// exact does not really change this, as it is only used to effect the extraction
	// of terms from the search field, so it is treated like "any" as well
	if ($search['mode'] == 'any' || $search['mode'] == 'exact') {
		$where_string = implode(' OR ',$where_strings);
	} elseif ($search['mode'] == 'all') {
		$where_string = implode(' AND ',$where_strings);
	}

Thanks

[krzyk]

You could try adding an if inside the foreach. First add somewhere an array with words to be excluded:

$excludeWords = array('angels'); 

And then the if in foreach:

// explode words into an array, one element per word and loop through them
            foreach(explode(' ',$search['terms']) as $term) {
                // remove white space
                $term = trim($term);
                                if (array_search($term, $excludeWords) !== FALSE)
                                {
                                    continue;
                                } 

[Freejoy]

Thanks,

I've been working on it most of the day but I couldn't get the code to work. Here's how I have it now. There are no errors, just seems to be no change at all. I've tried many things and combinations with no luck.

// make sure this file isn't accessed directly via a browser
if (!defined('SC_INCLUDE_OK')) die;

// grab the search array from submitted data
$search = $_GET['search'];
$excludeWords = array('angels'); 
// set default for mode if it was not passed
if (!$search['mode']) $search['mode'] == 'any';
 
// grab the search terms and put 'em in an array
if (($search['terms']) && is_array($search)){
    
    if (strlen($search['terms']) == 0){
        $Result_Message = '<div class="action_msg">You must enter search terms to perform a search!</div>';
    } else {

        // strip slashes if necessary
        if (get_magic_quotes_gpc()) $search['terms'] = stripslashes($search['terms']);
    
        // remove extra whitespace
        $search['terms'] = trim($search['terms']);

        // if terms entered start and end with a quote, then treat it as an exact match
        if ($search['terms'][0] == '"' && $search['terms'][strlen($search['terms'])-1] == '"') {
            $terms[] = str_replace('"','',$search['terms']);
        } elseif ($search['mode'] == 'exact') {
            // exact search should just use the whole value of the terms field
            $terms[] = $search['terms'];
            
        } else {
            // explode words into an array, one element per word and loop through them
            foreach(explode(' ',$search['terms']) as $term) {
                // remove white space
                $term = trim($term);
                if (array_search($term, $excludeWords) !== FALSE) 
                                {   
                                  $Result_Message = '<div class="action_msg">Hello!</div>';
                                 } 
                // escape the term to make it safe for the query, and put it in an array
                if ($term) $terms[] = sc_mysql_escape($term);
            }    
        
        }
        
    }

} 

[bhanson]

One alternative solution would be changing:

if ($term) $terms[] = sc_mysql_escape($term); 

To:

if (!in_array($term, $excludeWords)) $terms[] = sc_mysql_escape($term); 

Using the above mentioned array.

This should simply exclude the words in the $excludeWords array from the search. So if someone searched for "angels with cats", then it would only search for "with cats".

[Freejoy]

Thanks,

It works beautiful.

[buldozerce]

Why don't you use str_replace($arr,'',$search);

It's the fastest.