Question

Both search bring back the correct results, but when I tried combining the 2 queries, it ends up giving bad results.

$query3 = "SELECT *
FROM airport_countries, airports
WHERE airports.iso_country=airport_countries.code &&
airport_countries.name like '%$search%'
ORDER BY pageviews DESC";

$query2 = "SELECT * 
    FROM airports 
    WHERE name like '%$search%' or 
municipality like '%$search%'
ORDER BY pageviews DESC";

VVVVVVVVV

SELECT *
FROM airport_countries, airports
WHERE airports.iso_country=airport_countries.code &&
airport_countries.name like '%$search%' or
    airports.name like '%$search%'  or 
airports. municipality like '%$search%'
ORDER BY pageviews DESC

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

you problem aseems to be the operator precedence. to avoid that, just use braces:

SELECT *
FROM airport_countries, airports
WHERE airports.iso_country=airport_countries.code
AND (
    airport_countries.name LIKE '%$search%'
    OR airports.name LIKE '%$search%'
    OR airports. municipality LIKE '%$search%'
    )
ORDER BY pageviews DESC

i’d also recommend using AND instead of && (you’re writing or instead of || – doesn’t look very consistent), but thats just my opinion for better readability and shouldn’t cause any difference.