Help with very simple search script...

[bcp_2005]

Oke here's my problem. I've got this databse of sentances. I need to search this database of sentances and return any results. Such as, if you search for the word 'php' it would return a value of all the sentances that had that word in it. Here's the script I came up with:

$query = "SELECT name FROM search";

$result = mysql_query($query);

if (preg_match ("/$term/i", "$result")) {
print "A match was found.";
} else {
print "A match was not found.";
}

I've got this test sentance in the db:

PHP rules.

I search for 'PHP'. It says "a match was not found". What am I doing wrong?

[Skunk]

Try this:

$query = mysql_query("select name from search where name like '%$term%'");
$num = mysql_num_rows($result);
if ($num > 0) {
    echo "<p>Found $num results</p>\n";
} else {
    echo "<p>No results found</p>\n";
}
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
    echo "Result: {$row['name']}<br />\n";
}

[bcp_2005]

It works! I do have a question though, in the mysql query you have this:

$query = mysql_query("select name from search where name like '%$term%'");

what do the '%' do? I've seen that before but have no clue what purpose they serve...

anyways, thanks for your time!

[ax3]

The % are used as wildcards. They work the same way as * in Windows.
ie: ...where name like '%$term%'...
if there's a name "dkjaoTERMadka" it will be selected by the query.

[Wilco]

'$term%' would match a first word
'%$term' would match a last word

[bcp_2005]

ok i get it thanks