Multiple word string for database search using PHP and MySQLi - php

Question

In trying to set up a contact database I'm trying to use a multi word string to search a database of people to narrow down search results.
I have the following code. My problem is taking the result of my forms input string converted to an array and inserting it into the $sql SELECT coding so that it checks every word against every column. The reason for that is so when doing a search you can either type in 'Joe Bloggs New York' or 'New York Joe Bloggs' and get the same result.
<?php
// **My String collection and conversion to an array**
// Get Form String
$input = $_POST['input'];
// Split String into an Array
$input = preg_split("/[\\/\s,]+/", $input);
// Checking That We Now Have An Array
print_r($input);
// Loop Through Array Values
for ($i = 0; $i < count($input); $i++) {
// Checking Array Output
echo '<br />';
echo $input[$i];
echo '<br />';
}
// **My database query**
// Connect To Database
require_once("connect.php");
// Query The Database
$sql="SELECT * FROM contact WHERE name LIKE '%$input[$i]%' AND lastName LIKE '%$input[$i]%' AND area LIKE '%$input[$i]%' ORDER BY name";
if ($result=mysqli_query($con,$sql))
{
// Fetch one and one row
while ($row=mysqli_fetch_row($result))
{
echo "<h2><u>$row[1]</u></h2><br />";
echo "<img src='img/$row[5]' style='width:300px; height: auto;'/>";
echo "<h3>Name - $row[1] $row[2]</h3>";
echo "<h3>Phone - $row[3]</h3>";
echo "<h3>Email - $row[4]</h3>";
echo "<br /><br />";
}
// Free result set
mysqli_free_result($result);
} else {
echo "No Results";
}
// Close Database Connection
mysqli_close($con);
?>
<h1>Contacts</h1>
<form method="post" action="search.php">
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="text" name="input" size="30" maxlength="50"/>
</td>
<td>
<input type="submit" name="SEARCH" value="Search"/>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
If I could please get help putting both pieces of code together so that it takes the string, converts it to an array and then only gives me a return from the database of Joe Bloggs's that live in New York I'd be very grateful.

Answer 1

You might try changing your ANDs to ORs in the query, otherwise you are querying for john john who lives in john...