Question

While using the command:

@items = Item.find(:all,:order => 'name', :conditions => ["name LIKE ?", "%#{params[:key]}%"])

This works perfectly fine, but the search is only based on just a column. How do i make it search other columns, like description, category?

Answer 1

I am assuming you are using Rails 2, since you are using ActiveRecord 2 style syntax. You can just add the other columns as additional conditions, like this:

key = "%#{params[:key]}%"
@items = Item.find(:all, :conditions => [
  'name LIKE ? OR description LIKE ? OR category LIKE ?',
   key, key, key
], :order => 'name')

For reference, here’s how you would do it in Rails 3:

key = "%#{params[:key]}%"
@items = Item.where('name LIKE ? OR description LIKE ? OR category LIKE ?', key, key, key).order(:name)