Question

what is the best way to write a query that combines AND , OR without any interference
for example

sql= " select * from table where category=5 AND itme_name LIKE %$x% OR item_detail LIKE %x% " ;

waht i want is something like

 category=5 AND ( itme_name LIKE %$x% OR item_detail LIKE %$x%  ) 

ican do this by using 2 query
OR SOMETHING LIKE

select * from table where category=5 AND category IN(
select category from table where itme_name LIKE %$x% OR item_detail LIKE %x% )

but i wonder if i can do this without that inner query by i dont know maybe using Parenthesis around second part?

Answer 1

Use parentheses to change the precedence (without parentheses AND has higher precedence than OR):

category=5 AND (itme_name LIKE '%$x%' OR item_detail LIKE '%$x%') 

Notes:

• I’ve also added missing quotes and a dollar sign.
• Be careful: itme_name is most likely incorrectly spelled. It probably should be item_name. You may also need to fix the table definition and all other queries that use the incorrect spelling.