Creating advanced search query with PHP Mysqli

Question

I've started developing a project and I need use a advanced search query with PHP and Mysqli , but I'm getting some troubles. Check out below my query.

$query = "SELECT id, name, keybox, posterid, alias, xmdb from `datasys` WHERE name LIKE '%".$filter."%' OR keybox LIKE '%".$filter."%' ORDER BY id LIMIT 0, 10";

It's working perfeclty! But still not matching entries that contains symbols, for example, if my database contains a row called "Color: red" and someone type "Color red" , the query will return empty, but if I type "Color: red" returns found. So, what should I do to resolve this issue?

Thanks

Answer 1

The one thing that I can think of in order to maintain consistency is that you can eliminate the ':' in your query for matching. Try the below query:

$query = "SELECT id, name, keybox, posterid, alias, xmdb from `datasys` WHERE REPLACE(name, ':', '') LIKE '%REPLACE(".$filter.", ':', '')%' OR REPLACE(keybox, ':', '') LIKE '%REPLACE(".$filter.", ':', '')%' ORDER BY id LIMIT 0, 10";

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Either use the REGEXP as:-

SELECT * FROM table WHERE columnName REGEXP "regular_expression";

or use REPLACE() function in WHERE clause as:-

SELECT * FROM table WHERE REPLACE(columnName, ":", "") LIKE "like_expression";

Answer 3

Use two queries to find exact and similar records. If the records available in Exact data query then no need to run the similar data query

 <?php
//Fetches Exact Data
    $query = "SELECT id, name, keybox, posterid, alias, xmdb from `datasys` WHERE name LIKE '%".$filter."%' OR keybox LIKE '%".$filter."%' ORDER BY id LIMIT 0, 10";

    //If the previous query doesn't return any value, then use
    //Split the the user input and then query DB
    $condition="name!=''";
    $filters=explode(" ",$filter);
    foreach($filters as $val)
    {
        $condition.=" or (name LIKE '%$val%' OR keybox LIKE '%$val%')";
    }
//Fetches Similar Data
    $query = "SELECT id, name, keybox, posterid, alias, xmdb from `datasys` WHERE $condition ORDER BY id LIMIT 0, 10";

    //-----------ENDS
    ?>