Autocomplete search by First Name and Last Name - php

Question

I have created an autosuggestion search box using PHP and jQuery. The user is prompted to insert First name and Last name to find someone that exists in my database, in a table called customers. Table customers holds 2 columns, first_name and last_name.
My search works fine when you type the First name but after pressing space to move and type Last Name does not give any results. The whole problem seems to appear when pressing space button. Any idea how to fix it?
$(document).ready(function($){
$("#customers").autocomplete({
source: "fetch_customers.php?cc=<?php echo $agencyid; ?>",
minLength: 2,
select: function(event, ui) {
var code = ui.item.id;
if (code != '#') {
location.href = '/view-customer/' + code;
}
},
open: function(event, ui) {
$(".ui-autocomplete").css("z-index", 1000);
}
});
});
<?php
$countrycode1 = $_GET['cc'];
$term = trim(strip_tags($_GET['term']));
$term = preg_replace('/\s+/', ' ', $term);
$a_json = array();
$a_json_row = array();
$a_json_invalid = array(array("id" => "#", "value" => $term, "label" => "Only letters and digits are permitted..."));
$json_invalid = json_encode($a_json_invalid);
if ($data = $conn->query("SELECT id, first_name, last_name FROM customers WHERE agency_id='$countrycode1' AND (first_name LIKE '%$term%' OR last_name LIKE '%$term%') ORDER BY first_name , last_name"))
{
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($data))
{
$firstname = htmlentities(stripslashes($row['first_name']));
$lastname = htmlentities(stripslashes($row['last_name']));
$code = htmlentities(stripslashes($row['id']));
$a_json_row["id"] = $code;
$a_json_row["value"] = $firstname.' '.$lastname;
$a_json_row["label"] = $firstname.' '.$lastname;
array_push($a_json, $a_json_row);
}
}
/* jQuery wants JSON data */
$json = json_encode($a_json);
print $json;
flush();
$conn->close();

Answer 1

Split Your $term like this.
$splited_term = explode(" ",$term);
$first_term = $splited_term[0];
$last_term = (isset($splited_term[1]) && !empty($splited_term)) ? $splited_term[1] : null;
Generate your query according
$query = "SELECT id, first_name, last_name FROM customers WHERE agency_id='$countrycode1' AND ";
if(!empty($first_term)){
$query.= "(first_name LIKE '%$first_term%' OR last_name LIKE '%$first_term%'" ;
}
if(!empty($last_term)){
$query .= ((!empty($first_term)) ? " OR " : " ( " )." first_name LIKE '%$last_term%' OR last_name LIKE '%$last_term%')" ;
}
$query .= ((empty($last_term)) ? ")" : "")." ORDER BY first_name , last_name";
This will support
"Milind Patel"
"Patel Milind"
" Milind"
" Patel"
"Milind"
"Patel"
So Your code should be like this.
<?php
$countrycode1 = $_GET['cc'];
$term = trim(strip_tags($_GET['term']));
$term = preg_replace('/\s+/', ' ', $term);
$splited_term = explode(" ",$term);
$first_term = $splited_term[0];
$last_term = (isset($splited_term[1]) && !empty($splited_term)) ? $splited_term[1] : null;
$a_json = array();
$a_json_row = array();
$a_json_invalid = array(array("id" => "#", "value" => $term, "label" => "Only letters and digits are permitted..."));
$json_invalid = json_encode($a_json_invalid);
$query = "SELECT id, first_name, last_name FROM customers WHERE agency_id='$countrycode1' AND ";
if(!empty($first_term)){
$query.= "(first_name LIKE '%$first_term%' OR last_name LIKE '%$first_term%'" ;
}
if(!empty($last_term)){
$query .= ((!empty($first_term)) ? " OR " : " ( " )." first_name LIKE '%$last_term%' OR last_name LIKE '%$last_term%')" ;
}
$query .= ((empty($last_term)) ? ")" : "")." ORDER BY first_name , last_name";
if ($data = $conn->query($query))
{
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($data))
{
$firstname = htmlentities(stripslashes($row['first_name']));
$lastname = htmlentities(stripslashes($row['last_name']));
$code = htmlentities(stripslashes($row['id']));
$a_json_row["id"] = $code;
$a_json_row["value"] = $firstname.' '.$lastname;
$a_json_row["label"] = $firstname.' '.$lastname;
array_push($a_json, $a_json_row);
}
}
/* jQuery wants JSON data */
$json = json_encode($a_json);
print $json;
flush();
$conn->close();