Question

I’m creating a search for a website for an organization that works with abused and neglected animals, and everything is working fine until the search contains a specific value. For example, if someone types in ‘braxton black’ in the search field, it will search for those terms properly, and display results properly. However, if they use the advanced search, and they select ‘Male’ the results come back with male and female animals, like that part doesn’t matter.

Here is an example SQL statement produced from searching ‘braxton black’ and selecting ‘Female’ as the animals sex:

SELECT * FROM ans WHERE (ans_name LIKE '%braxton%' OR ans_name LIKE '%black%') OR (ans_color LIKE '%braxton%' OR ans_color LIKE '%black%') OR (ans_age LIKE '%braxton%' OR ans_age LIKE '%black%') OR (ans_desc LIKE '%braxton%' OR ans_desc LIKE '%black%') AND ans_sex = 'Female' GROUP BY ans_id

All fields are correct, and the term within the ‘ans_sex’ field is either Male or Female, so it searches the exact term. Can anyone see any issue with this SQL statement that is causing a problem? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Right now, your search is executed like this (I will split it to small chunks for better overview).

SELECT * FROM ans WHERE (ans_name LIKE '%braxton%' OR ans_name LIKE '%black%')

SELECT * FROM ans WHERE (ans_color LIKE '%braxton%' OR ans_color LIKE '%black%')

SELECT * FROM ans WHERE (ans_age LIKE '%braxton%' OR ans_age LIKE '%black%')

SELECT * FROM ans WHERE ans_age LIKE '%black%'

SELECT * FROM ans WHERE (ans_desc LIKE '%braxton%' OR ans_desc LIKE '%black%') AND ans_sex = 'Female'

As you may see, your AND is taken into account only with last OR

So… make it like this:

`SELECT * FROM ans WHERE ((ans_name LIKE '%braxton%' OR ans_name LIKE '%black%') OR (ans_color LIKE '%braxton%' OR ans_color LIKE '%black%') OR (ans_age LIKE '%braxton%' OR ans_age LIKE '%black%') OR (ans_desc LIKE '%braxton%' OR ans_desc LIKE '%black%')) AND ans_sex = 'Female' GROUP BY ans_id

Just wrap in braces everything before your AND