Search query doesn't return desired results

Question

I have kind of advanced search function. All works fine except one AND LIKE ... . There are two options A or A, *AB . I want when I choose A to return results only which are A in database and when I choose A, *AB to return results which are only A, *AB .

What is happening now is that when I choose B, *AB it returns results which for both

A
A, *AB

My form is with action get . This is my query

    $couGe=($ge == "None") ? "" : "AND c.ge LIKE '".substr($ge, 0, 2)."%'";
    $active = ($this->showCouCancelled) ? "AND (c.active=1 OR c.active=7)" : "";
    $active = ($this->hideCouActive) ? "AND (c.active=1 OR c.active=3 OR c.active=4 OR c.active=7)" : "";
    $couName = ($cName) ? "AND course_title LIKE '%$cName%'" : "";
    $couDept = ($cDept) ? "AND s.dept='$cDeptArray[0]' AND s.dept_code='$cDeptArray[1]'" : "";

    $iRes = _SQLQuery("
                    SELECT DISTINCT c.id,s.dept,s.dept_code,c.course_title,c.active,s.year,s.sem,c.ge,c.course_type
                    FROM courses AS c, sections AS s, teachers as t, tea_sec_rel as tsr
                    WHERE s.course_id_rel=c.id AND $curYr $curSem $active $couName $couDept $psSearch $couGe
                    ORDER BY s.dept,s.dept_code");

The html select option menu has

<select name="ge" id="ge">
   <option value="None">All</option>
   <option value="A">A</option>
   <option value="A, *AB">A, *AB</option>
</select>

On the query this is the line which take ge

$couGe=($ge == "None") ? "" : "AND c.ge LIKE '".substr($ge, 0, 2)."%'";

When I var_dump($_GET['ge'] I see that I get what I choose. I'm very confused and any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

You need to change a bit your query and the way you assign $couGe where you took selected ge . Please try this way

$couGe=($ge == "None") ? "" : "'".substr($ge, 0, 2)."'";
$active = ($this->showCouCancelled) ? "AND (c.active=1 OR c.active=7)" : "";
$active = ($this->hideCouActive) ? "AND (c.active=1 OR c.active=3 OR c.active=4 OR c.active=7)" : "";
$couName = ($cName) ? "AND course_title LIKE '%$cName%'" : "";
$couDept = ($cDept) ? "AND s.dept='$cDeptArray[0]' AND s.dept_code='$cDeptArray[1]'" : "";

$iRes = _SQLQuery("
                SELECT DISTINCT c.id,s.dept,s.dept_code,c.course_title,c.active,s.year,s.sem,c.ge,c.course_type
                FROM courses AS c, sections AS s, teachers as t, tea_sec_rel as tsr
                WHERE s.course_id_rel=c.id AND $curYr $curSem $active $couName $couDept $psSearch $couTea AND c.ge LIKE $couGe
                ORDER BY s.dept,s.dept_code");