Searching a custom table in wordpress - php

Question

I'm currently building a site for a client and they want a search feature that will search all of the products they supply.
I have created a new table in the database called sc_products and then tried the below code in a wordpress template page but I don't appear to be getting anywhere. If anyone knows how I can get this working that would be awesome!
<?php
/*
Template Name: myTemp
*/
function search_it() {
if ( is_search() && isset($_GET['s'])) {
global $wpdb;
$address_table = $wpdb->prefix . "sc_products";
$myrows = $wpdb->get_results( 'SELECT product FROM ' . $sc_products );
foreach ( $myrows as $single_row ) {
global $single_row;
}
$product = $single_row->product;
}
return $product;
}
$city = search_it();
echo $city;
get_search_form();
?>

Answer 1

There's a couple of things going on here, let's see if we can work them out.
Here's your modified function which should perform a search, with comments throughout to help explain what's going on.
NOTES:
1. You declare $address_table, but then use $sc_products. That can't be correct, as $sc_products is not defined.
2. This answer is based on the column names you provided in comments - IF they are not an exact match, you'll need to update them, INCLUDING matching case. If it's not Application, but instead application, you'll need to make that change.
function search_it() {
// If this is a search, and the search variable is set
if ( is_search() && isset( $_GET['s'] ) ) {
// Global in $wpdb so we can run a query
global $wpdb;
// Build the table name - glue the table prefix onto the front of the table name of "sc_products"
$address_table = $wpdb->prefix . "sc_products";
// Get the search term into a variable for convenience
$search = $_GET['s'];
// To use "LIKE" with the wildcards (%), we have to do some funny business:
$search = "%{$search}%";
// Build the where clause using $wpdb->prepare to prevent SQL injection attacks
// Searching ALL THREE of our columns: Product, Application, Sector
$where = $wpdb->prepare( 'WHERE Product LIKE %s OR Application LIKE %s OR Sector LIKE %s', $search, $search, $search );
// Execute the query with our WHERE clause
// NOTE: Your code originally used "$sc_products", but that variable was not defined - so have replaced to the proper $address_table here.
$results = $wpdb->get_results( "SELECT product FROM {$address_table} {$where}" );
// return the results. No need to put into an array, it's already an array
return $product;
}
// For consistency, return an empty array if not a search / no search term
return array();
}
// USAGE:
// Run the query
$cities = search_it();
// You can't echo an array!
// echo $city;
// var_dump to see the whole array
var_dump( $cities );
// More useful USAGE:
$cities = search_it();
// If there's any results
if ( ! empty( $cities ) ) {
// Output a title
echo '<h1>Product Search Results:</h1>';
// Loop over the results
foreach( $cities AS $city ) {
// $wpdb returns an array of objects, so output the object properties
echo '<h2>' . $city->Product . '</h2>';
echo '<p>' . $city->Application . '</p>';
echo '<p>' . $city->Sector . '</p>';
}
}
get_search_form();