php MySQL select priority - php

Question

$query = "SELECT * FROM posts WHERE language='$lang' AND (title LIKE '%$search%' OR author LIKE '%$search%' OR year LIKE '%$search%')";
This does exactly what it should do. But what I'd like to do is having "title" as a priority. But as it looks now (every search is in a dropdown of html) it simple show's it without an priority. So the title can be at the very bottom, and the author at the top. Wrong order. I'd like to somehow always have the title at top.
How?
$output = '';
$lang = $_SESSION["lang"];
$search = $_POST["query"];
$query = "SELECT * FROM posts WHERE language='$lang' AND (title LIKE '%$search%' OR author LIKE '%$search%' OR year LIKE '%$search%')";
$result = mysqli_query($connect, $query);
$output = '<ul class="list-unstyled">';
if(mysqli_num_rows($result) > 0)
{
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
{
$output .= '<li>'.$row["book"].'</li>';
}
}
else
{
$output .= 'Not found.';
}
$output .= '</ul>';
echo $output;

Answer 1

You can split up the query.
$output = '';
$lang = $_SESSION["lang"];
$search = $_POST["query"];
$query2 = "SELECT * FROM posts WHERE language='$lang' AND title LIKE '%$search%'";
$result2 = mysqli_query($connect, $query2);
$output = '<ul class="list-unstyled">';
if(mysqli_num_rows($result2) > 0)
{
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result2))
{
$output .= '<li>'.$row["book"].'</li>';
}
}
else
{
$output .= 'Not found.';
}
$query = "SELECT * FROM posts WHERE language='$lang' AND (author LIKE '%$search%' OR year LIKE '%$search%')";
$result = mysqli_query($connect, $query);
if(mysqli_num_rows($result) > 0)
{
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
{
$output .= '<li>'.$row["book"].'</li>';
}
}
else
{
$output .= 'Not found.';
}
$output .= '</ul>';
echo $output;

Answer 2

ORDER BY should do the trick for you here:
http://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_orderby.asp
$query = "
SELECT book
, title
, url
FROM posts
WHERE language='$lang'
AND (
title LIKE '%$search%'
OR
author LIKE '%$search%'
OR
year LIKE '%$search%'
)
ORDER BY title ASC
, author ASC
, book ASC
";
I've added an optional order by 'author' and 'book' too (the priority of ordering starts with 'title', then 'author' and finally 'book') - you can change this to whatever you need though in ASC (ascending) or DESC (descending) order.
I'd also recommend you consider using bind params rather than passing in variables directly into your SQL to prevent SQL Injection.
Mysqli Bind Param Documentation
http://php.net/manual/en/mysqli-stmt.bind-param.php
Really good SO post here with help and more info about SQL Injection
How can I prevent SQL injection in PHP?
Also - try to avoid using SELECT * FROM... where possible, and only SELECT out the information you need. You'll be able to INDEX it better this way too (meaning quicker retrieval of data from the database).

Answer 3

You could use a scoring system to give each match a score and then sort by the match score. So a match for title gets a higher score and a match for author gets the next highest and so on. I'll rewrite just the query here:
SELECT *,
(
CASE
WHEN title LIKE '%$search%' THEN 100
WHEN author LIKE '%$search%' THEN 10
WHEN year LIKE '%$search%' THEN 1
END
) AS matchScore
FROM posts
WHERE
language='$lang' AND
(title LIKE '%$search%' OR author LIKE '%$search%' OR year LIKE '%$search%')
ORDER BY matchScore DESC