Basic Search Engine

PHP
1

Hi,

I’ve made a simple search engine for my website and despite my efforts to get it to work all I ever get is the error message i created should there be no results.

Here is the search engine code:


error_reporting(-1);
ini_set('display_errors', true);

$var = $_GET['q'];
$trimmed = trim($var);

if ($trimmed == '')

{
    $error = 'Please enter a search term.......';
    include 'error.html.php';
    exit();
}

if (!isset($var))
{
    $error = 'A search term is required to perform a search.......';
    include 'error.html.php';
    exit();
}

include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/includes/db.inc.php';

$sql = "SELECT * FROM story WHERE storytext LIKE \\"%$trimmed%\\" ORDER BY RAND LIMIT(10)";

$result = mysqli_query($link, $sql);

if (!$result)
{
    $error = 'Sorry your search returned no results.';
    include 'error.html.php';
    exit();
}

while ($row = mysqli_query($result))
{
    $stories[] = array('id' => $row['id'], 'title' => $row['storytitle'], 'text' => $row['storytext']); 
}

I am using WAMPserver if that makes a difference.

Any help would be much appreciated.

2

your query has a syntax error

test it outside of php, directly in mysql, to find out what the error is

:slight_smile:

3

Use single quotes around strings in the query, use mysqli_real_escape_string to sanitize user input before using it in a query, and for debugging purposes use the ‘or die’ construction to get more detailed info in case of an error:


$sql = "
  SELECT * 
  FROM story 
  WHERE storytext LIKE '%" . mysqli_real_escape_string($trimmed) . "%'
  ORDER BY RAND 
  LIMIT(10)
";

$result = mysqli_query($link, $sql) or die("mysqli error " . mysqli_error() . " in query $sql");
4

once again guido you have solved all my woes.

Thank you!

5

so did you solve the sql errors? there were two of them

6

it seems to be working fine now…what was the second error?

7

what was the first one? :wink:

8

all i get from the query is an empty set…

if i put in the query with $trimmed being ‘this’…

all i get is empty set

9

did you test it in mysql?

10

yes and all i get is:
Empty Set

11

could you show the exact query you tested in mysql, and your mysql version number?

12

<CODE>
SELECT * FROM story WHERE storytext LIKE ‘this’;
Empty Set (0.00 sec)
</CODE>

Mysql Version 5.1.36

13

okay, two comments

first, you ~removed~ the parts of the query which had the syntax error – congratulations

second, the reason you got an empty set back is because there are currently no rows in your story table which have a storytext column consisting entirely of the single word ‘this’

does that explain things?

:slight_smile:

14

yes it does…

thank you!

15

one last thing how do i search the whole row

16

well, for one thing, you cannot use an equivalent to the dreaded, evil “select star” in your WHERE clause

you will have to write a separate condition for every column that you want searched

note that if you’re searching for words, for example, it wouldn’t make sense to include the story id or published date among the colulmns being searched

17

okay thanks…sound lengthy but i guess i just have to knuckle down xd