Question

Site users use a search form to query a database of products. The keywords entered search the titles for the products in the database.

    public function startSearch($keywords){
        $keywords = preg_split('/[\s]+/', $keywords);
        $totalKeywords = count($keywords);

        foreach($keywords as $key => $keyword){
            $search .= '%'.$keyword.'%';
            if($key != ($totalKeywords)-1){
                $search .= ' AND itemTitle LIKE ';
            }
        }
$sql=$this->db->prepare("SELECT * FROM prodsTable WHERE itemTitle LIKE ?");
$sql->bindParam(1, $search);        
$sql->execute ();
$sql->fetchALL(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);

The search works if a user enters a single keyword, but if multiple keywords are used the query does not execute.

if:
$keywords = ‘apple ipod’;
$search = ‘%apple% AND itemTitle LIKE %ipod%’;

So the prepared statement should look like this:

“SELECT * FROM prodsTable WHERE itemTitle LIKE %apple% AND itemTitle LIKE %ipod%”

No results return when two products should return having both “apple” and “ipod” in their titles.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Prepared statements protect you from sql injection, so sql code in the parameters will not be interpreted. You will have to build a sql query with the correct number of AND itemTitle LIKE ? before calling prepare().

  $keywords = preg_split('/[\s]+/', $keywords);
  $totalKeywords = count($keywords);
  $query = "SELECT * FROM prodsTable WHERE itemTitle LIKE ?";

  for($i=1 ; $i < $totalKeywords; $i++){
    $query .= " AND itemTitle LIKE ? ";
  }

  $sql=$this->db->prepare($query);
  foreach($keywords as $key => $keyword){
    $sql->bindValue($key+1, '%'.$keyword.'%');
  }
  $sql->execute ();