Best "search" practice.

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March 12th, 2013, 07:42 AM

zxcvbnm

A Change of Season

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Best "search" practice.

Hello I am trying to make a generic search on top right corner of this page. It doesn't work too bad but it is not perfect. I wrote the code below and it woks most of the times but not all the times. For exmple for term "yoga" it works but for "Yoga voucher" it doesn't!

What do you recommend?

Thanks

PHP Code:


		
			
 $sql = "SELECT *,

       atless_deals.id  AS DID,

       photo_query.file AS file

FROM   atless_deals

       LEFT OUTER JOIN (SELECT file,

                               deal_id

                        FROM   atless_deal_photo

                        ORDER  BY main DESC) AS photo_query

                    ON photo_query.deal_id = atless_deals.id

WHERE  atless_deals.status = :status

       AND atless_deals.description LIKE :description

GROUP  BY atless_deals.id

ORDER  BY atless_deals.id DESC";

$args_deals = array('description'=>'%'.$_POST['generic_search'].'%');

March 12th, 2013, 08:39 AM

ManiacDan

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PHP Code:


		
			
 $sql = "SELECT *, 

       atless_deals.id  AS DID, 

       photo_query.file AS file 

FROM   atless_deals 

       LEFT OUTER JOIN (SELECT file, 

                               deal_id 

                        FROM   atless_deal_photo 

                        ORDER  BY main DESC) AS photo_query 

                    ON photo_query.deal_id = atless_deals.id 

WHERE  atless_deals.status = :status 

       AND LOWER(atless_deals.description) LIKE :description 

GROUP  BY atless_deals.id 

ORDER  BY atless_deals.id DESC"; 

$args_deals = array('description'=>'%'.strtolower(mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['generic_search'])).'%');

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March 12th, 2013, 08:44 AM

E-Oreo

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Based on the code structure I assume he's using a prepared statement already.

You could look into match_against. It's not perfect, but often better than LIKE. Writing a good search system is pretty hard beyond those two methods.

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