Home/ Questions/Q 8075391
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-06-05T14:58:11+00:00

I have multi field database, some variables are constant, they are selected using a

  • 0

I have multi field database, some variables are constant, they are selected using a drop menu, some variables are free entry. I want to search the database and find count of rows containing a combination of the selected terms, it works for the most part but if I use more than 2 drop menus for selection it seems to stop working: Form search:

<form  action="search2.php" method="post">
<p>
Name: <input type="text" name="term1" style="background-color:#FFFF11">
<br />
<br />

Dept.: &nbsp;<input type="text" name="term4" style="background-color:#FFFF11">
<br />
<br />

Month: <select name="term2" style="width:65px;  color: black;background-color:#FFFF11">
<option value="" style="background-color: #FFFF11;">...</option>
<option value="Jan" style="background-color: #FFFF11;" >Jan</option>
<option value="Feb" style="background-color: #FFFF11;">Feb</option>
<option value="Mar" style="background-color: #FFFF11;">Mar</option>
<option value="Apr" style="background-color: #FFFF11;" >Apr</option>
<option value="May" style="background-color: #FFFF11;">May</option>
<option value="Jun" style="background-color: #FFFF11;">Jun</option>
<option value="Jul" style="background-color: #FFFF11;" >Jul</option>
<option value="Aug" style="background-color: #FFFF11;">Aug</option>
<option value="Sep" style="background-color: #FFFF11;">Sep</option>
<option value="Oct" style="background-color: #FFFF11;" >Oct</option>
<option value="Nov" style="background-color: #FFFF11;">Nov</option>
<option value="Dec" style="background-color: #FFFF11;">Dec</option>
</select>
<br />
<br />
Year: &nbsp;&nbsp;<select name="term3" style="width:65px;  color: black;background-color:#FFFF11">
<option value="" style="background-color: #FFFF11;">...</option>
<option value="2010" style="background-color: #FFFF11;" >2010</option>
<option value="2011" style="background-color: #FFFF11;">2011</option>
<option value="2012" style="background-color: #FFFF11;">2012</option>
</select>
<br />
<br />

</p>

&nbsp;&nbsp;<input class="button" type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

Search Code:

<?php

include "db.inc.php";
$term1 = $_POST['term1'];
$term2 = $_POST['term2'];
$term3 = $_POST['term3'];
$term4 = $_POST['term4'];
$sql ="SELECT * FROM fixes WHERE tech  LIKE '%$term1%' AND date LIKE '%$term2%' AND date LIKE '%$term3%' AND dept LIKE '%$term4%'";


$rs_result = mysql_query ($sql);
$num_rows = mysql_num_rows($rs_result);
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM fixes WHERE tech  LIKE '%$term1%' AND date LIKE '%$term2%' AND date LIKE '%$term3%' AND dept LIKE '%$term4%'"); 
$number=mysql_num_rows($query); 
?>

If I decide to use drop menu for dept, using same format above it stops working, perhpas there is a better way altogether? thanks

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Generally speaking, the quantity of drop-down menus should have no effect on your form or the corresponding SQL query.

    One thing to consider when you try translating your text fields to drop-downs in your above code is that you remember to keep the names unique (i.e. if you copied your <select...>...</select> code from another term, make sure to change the new SELECT’s name to “term4” or whatever it should be.

    Another thing to consider is if you change to drop-downs, meaning your input values are finite and knowable, you should change your SQL to use ...WHERE dept = '$term4'... instead of LIKE; this should make for a speedier query since you have no need of wildcards or partial matching when you know all the possible options.

    And as I commented above, don’t forget to escape your variables when you use them in your query to avoid SQL Injection.

    • 0