Question

I have 5 variables which can either be true or false and I have to generate different sql SELECT statements for each different possible outcome. Right now I have a ton of if else statements but I’m wondering if theres a smarter way to do this?

so for example, i have

if (x=true AND y=false AND z=false AND a=false AND b =false) {
    $sql= "SELECT...."
} else if(x=true AND y=true AND z=false AND a=false AND b=false) {
    $sql= "SELECT...."
}

The first select statement is if the user entered text and didnt select anything else:

$sql="SELECT CompanyName, Keywords, Product, Industry, Link, region, hot FROM searchtest_tbl WHERE Keywords LIKE '%$formSearch%' OR CompanyName LIKE '%$formSearch%' OR Product LIKE '%$formSearch%' OR Industry LIKE '%$formSearch%' ORDER BY hot DESC, CompanyName";

this statement is if they only selected from the Industry dropdown:

$sql="SELECT CompanyName, Product, Industry, Link, hot, region FROM searchtest_tbl WHERE Industry='$formIndustry' ORDER BY hot DESC, CompanyName";

and here is one if they entered text, selected an industry, but didnt select anythign else:

$sql="SELECT CompanyName, Product, Industry, Link, hot, region FROM searchtest_tbl WHERE Industry='$formIndustry' AND (Keywords LIKE '%$formSearch%' OR CompanyName LIKE '%$formSearch%' OR Product LIKE '%$formSearch%') ORDER BY hot DESC, CompanyName";

The rest are basically like this, but if the other fields are selected it will say WHERE Product='$formProduct' AND…. etc

Answer 1

Perhaps you can break down your logic into smaller components. For example, if x=true corresponds to a specific part of your select statement, and y=false corresponds to a different part, build the select statement piece by piece:

$sql_statement = "SELECT ";

$sql_statement .= ($x) ? "`column_a` " : "`column_a`, `column_b` ";

$sql_statement .= "FROM ";

$sql_statement .= ($y) ? "`table_a` " : "`table_b` ";

If this approach is not suitable for you, can you post additional code so we can make a better judgement?