Question

I’ve created an ajax search box using the keyup function to find profiles in my database.

$('#asearch').keyup(function(){
    var search_term = $(this).val();

The problem I’m having is that in my search box once I hit the space bar after typing the first name my page is no longer populated with results. Looking to make it so I can search a first name enter a space and a last name and still have results.

if (isset($_POST['search_term'])){
    $search_term = mysql_real_escape_string(htmlentities($_POST['search_term']));


    if (!empty($search_term)){

        $search = mysql_query("SELECT `firstname`, `lastname` FROM `tempusers`
        WHERE `firstname` LIKE '%$search_term%'");
        $result_count = mysql_num_rows($search);

        while ($results_row = mysql_fetch_assoc($search)) {
            echo  '<li>', $results_row['firstname'],'  ', $results_row['lastname'], '</li></br>';
        }
    }

}

Tried using a regex $search_term = preg_split('/[\s]+/', $search_term); but it did not work like I was hoping it would. Any tips one may have will be greatly appreciated

Answer 1

Use the trim() function:

Strip whitespace (or other characters) from the beginning and end of a
string.

Plugging it into your code:

$search_term = mysql_real_escape_string(htmlentities(trim($_POST['search_term'])));

By the way, is there a reason that you are using htmlentities on input?