Hide complete table before a PHP search - php

Question

I have a PHP search form for searching in a SQL table.
All together it works great, but there is one thing I like to change.
The whole table is visible on the screen BEFORE the search.
I would like to mention only the records after a search.
Does anybody know to hide the table in PHP?
Many thanks in advance!
HTML
<form action="" method="post">
<input type="text" name="search" placeholder="Search">
<input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>
PHP
<?php
$host = "******";
$user = "******";
$password = "******";
$database_name = "vangsten";
$pdo = new PDO("mysql:host=$host;dbname=$database_name", $user, $password, array(
PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION
));
$search=$_POST['search'];
$query = $pdo->prepare("select * FROM meldingen WHERE soort LIKE '%$search%' OR zone LIKE '%$search%' LIMIT 0 , 10");
$query->bindValue(1, "%$search%", PDO::PARAM_STR);
$query->execute();
if (!$query->rowCount() == 0) {
echo "<table style=\"margin:50px auto;\">";
echo "<tr><td>VISSOORT</td><td>LENGTE</td><td>AANTAL</td><td>ZONE</td></tr>";
while ($results = $query->fetch()) {
echo "<tr><td>";
echo $results['soort'];
echo "</td><td>";
echo $results['lengte'];
echo "</td><td>";
echo $results['aantal'];
echo "</td><td>";
echo $results['zone'];
echo "</td></tr>";
}
echo "</table>";
} else {
echo 'Nothing found';
}
?>

Answer 1

This is because even when there is no search passed you will end up running the query: with WHERE sort LIKE '%%'
You should check if a search has been passed first
if(array_key_exists('search',$_POST) && !empty($_POST['search'])){
$search=$_POST['search'];
$query = $pdo->prepare("select * FROM meldingen WHERE soort LIKE '%$search%' OR zone LIKE '%$search%' LIMIT 0 , 10");
$query->bindValue(1, "%$search%", PDO::PARAM_STR);
$query->execute();
if (!$query->rowCount() == 0) {
echo "<table style=\"margin:50px auto;\">";
echo "<tr><td>VISSOORT</td><td>LENGTE</td><td>AANTAL</td><td>ZONE</td></tr>";
while ($results = $query->fetch()) {
echo "<tr><td>";
echo $results['soort'];
echo "</td><td>";
echo $results['lengte'];
echo "</td><td>";
echo $results['aantal'];
echo "</td><td>";
echo $results['zone'];
echo "</td></tr>";
}
echo "</table>";
} else {
echo 'Nothing found';
}
}
array_key_exists('search',$_POST) checks that there is a value with
the key 'search;'
!empty($_POST['search']) checks it is not just
an empty string. (You may want to allow this)
You could use isset($_POST['search']) instead of array_key_exists('search',$_POST) but array_key_exists is better practice as isset still returns false if the value is NULL

Answer 2

You can check if the user has clicked on the search button:
if (isset($_POST['search'])) {
// do your table generation here
}