Question

I have the following PHP search script.
When I search for 1234567, it matches the exact phrase but I want it to match only initial 4 characters i.e. 1234.

Explanation:

I want it to count the initial 4 characters and display the result matching those initial characters. E.g. if someone search for 1234567 then the script should count the initial 4 characters i.e. 1234 and show the results. Similarly if someone search 456789 then the script should count the initial 4 characters i.e. 4567 and show the results.

///explode search term
           $search_exploded = explode(" ",$search);
           foreach($search_exploded as  $search_each)
           {
           //construct query

            $x++;
            if ($x==1)
               $construct .= "keywords LIKE '%$search_each%'";
           else
              $construct .= " OR keywords LIKE '%$search_each%'";

           }


     //echo out construct

    $construct = "SELECT * FROM numbers WHERE $construct";
     $run = mysql_query($construct);

     $foundnum = mysql_num_rows($run);

     if ($foundnum==0)
        echo "No results found.";
     {

       echo "$foundnum results found.<p><hr size='1'>";

       while ($runrows = mysql_fetch_assoc($run))
       {
        //get data
        $title = $runrows['title']; 
        $desc = $runrows['description'];
       $url = $runrows['url'];

        echo "<b>$title</b>
             <b>$desc</b>
       <a href='$url'>$url</a><p>";

Answer 1

You can replace your foreach with:

foreach($search_exploded as $search_each)
{
    $str = mysql_real_escape_string(substr($search_each, 0, 4));
    //construct query
    $x++;
    if ($x==1) $construct .= "keywords LIKE '$str%'";
    else       $construct .= " OR keywords LIKE '$str%'";
}