Quake3World

I'm trying to write an advanced filter function. Sofar I have 5 parameters which could lead to 25 possible queries. Instead of having to write them all, how do people normally tackle this problem?

Which part of the problem, exactly?

Passing them across to the script or executing the search?

Can you give us the specifics?

without seeing how you're doing it, it's difficult to say. the main thing is making sure that your data is in a form that allows decent searches to be performed easily - and if you're expecting the search to be used a lot, make sure the tables it hits are indexed properly.

mostly, searches in php work by building up the components of a mysql query in strings, then lumping them all together and running the query.

crap e.g:

$query = 'SELECT * FROM asian_movies WHERE genre';

if($_POST['include_swords']) $querypart1 'AND include_swords = 1';
if($_POST['has_plot']) $querypart2 = 'AND has_plot = 1';
if($_POST['has_white_bad_guy']) $querypart3 = 'AND has_white_bad_guy = 1';

I just let google index my shit then I use a site:xxx.com query to search it

nm..silly me...I like your solution 4days

$device_id = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['device_id']);
$operator_id = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['operator_id']);
$country_id = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['country_id']);
$language_id = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['language_id']);
$category_id = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['category_id']);

$query = 'SELECT * FROM files'.
" INNER JOIN selectors_predefined".
" ON selectors_predefined.id = files.device_id".
" WHERE device_id = '$device_id'";

now, people may use any of those 5 variables in a form, or just use 1
the first 4 will only hold one, but the $category_id may even be an array of id's

*crunch crunch*

If you detect 'device_id' or any of the other fields as being blank, just insert the wildcard character?

got it working....god I love PHP