Question

I have some sql that searches a db table for a number from a form input.

An good example would be the following rows:

124
1240
12400
124000

My sql is a simple like statement:

SELECT NUMBER FROM TABLE WHERE NUMBER LIKE '$number%'

If the use searched for 124, I would get find 4 rows which is fine.

My question is, if the user typed in 12400000, how can I return the row with 124000?
I’m assuming that I would need to loop back through the number until a row is found?

My input requires a min of 3 numbers before the sql is run, so I would want to stop the loop at 3 numbers.

With php and or SQL, is there a method that allows me to count back on a string to a defined point; string back to the 3rd Character?

Answer 1

Just make an array from that input and use the IN:

$_POST['number'] = '124000';

$number = (string)(int)$_POST['number'];

$numbers = array();
$inNumber = '';
if(strlen($number) > 2){
    $baseNumber = substr($number, 0, 3);
    $numbers[] = $baseNumber;
    for($i=3; $i<=strlen($number)-1; $i++){
        $inNumber.= $number[$i];
        $numbers[] = $baseNumber.$inNumber;
    }

    $tosearch = implode("','", array_reverse($numbers));
    $query = "SELECT * FROM `TABLE` WHERE `NUMBER` IN ('".$tosearch."') ORDER BY FIELD(`id`, '".$tosearch."')";
    echo $query; // SELECT * FROM `TABLE` WHERE `NUMBER` IN ('124000','12400','1240','124') ORDER BY FIELD(`NUMBER`, '124000','12400','1240','124')
}