Creating a search function - php

Question

I have multiple fields in my search form and my query works for individual fields. what i'm trying to achieve is
1- query should work if search is based on 1 field
2- query should work if search is based on multiple fields entry
my form
<form class="sidebar-search jumbro-search container list-inline center-block" method="get" action="search.php">
<div class="form-group col-md-2">
<input list="location" name="location" class="form-control" placeholder="Location">
<datalist id="location">
<?php
$loc="select * from locations";
$results=mysqli_query($dbc,$loc);
while($row_loc=mysqli_fetch_array($results)){
echo '<option value='.$row_loc['region'].'>'.$row_loc['region'].'</option>';
}
?>
</datalist>
</div>
<div class="form-group col-md-2">
<select class="form-control" name="category">
<option selected>Category</option>
<?php
$cat="select * from property_type order by type_name asc";
$results=mysqli_query($dbc,$cat);
while($row_cat=mysqli_fetch_array($results)){
echo '<option value='.$row_cat['type_name'].'>'.$row_cat['type_name'].'</option>';
}
?>
</select>
</div>
<div class="form-group col-md-2">
<select class="form-control" name="status">
<option selected>Status</option>
<?php
$status="select * from property_status order by status_name asc";
$results=mysqli_query($dbc,$status);
while($row_status=mysqli_fetch_array($results)){
echo '<option value='.$row_status['status_name'].'>'.$row_status['status_name'].'</option>';
}
?>
</select>
</div>
<div class="form-group col-md-2">
<input type="text" name="price-max" value="999999999999" class="form-control" placeholder="Max Price">
</div>
<div class="form-group col-md-2">
<button class="btn btn-primary form-control">Search</button>
</div>
and my php script looks like this
// getting user data from search form
$location=$_GET['location'];
$category=$_GET['category'];
$status=$_GET['status'];
//scripts
if($location!="location" && $category!="category" && $status!="status"){
$query="select * from properties where `property_type` like '%$category%' && `location` like '%$location%' && `status` like '%$status%' ";
}
$query="select * from properties where `property_type` like '%$category%' or `location` like '%$location%' or `status` like '%$status%'";
$result=mysqli_query($dbc,$query);
if(mysqli_query($dbc,$query)) {
$num_rows=mysqli_num_rows($result);
} else {
echo 'Query failed';
}
$num_rows=mysqli_num_rows($result);
if($num_rows!=0){
echo '<h3 class="page-header text-center">'.$num_rows.' Match Found</h3>';
while ($row=mysqli_fetch_array($result)) {
<?php
}//end while
}else{
echo '<h3 class="page-header text-center">No Match Found, try adjusting your search criteria.</h3>';
include 'functions/latest-sc.php';
}

Answer 1

Well, okay, I have several ideas about what you should change in your code.
I strongly recommend you to separate representative logic (html and echoing variables) from functionality like defining variables and handling database queries. It will help you a lot in future.
You can use default option in your selects with empty value
<option value="">Select none</option>
It will simplify your code in checks:
Instead of:
if($location!="location" && $category!="category" && $status!="status")
Can use:
if($location && $category && $status)
Read about escaping
On your main question - you can create query by concatenation. I give you example and you can replace it with 'OR' or 'AND' for your needs:
$sql = 'SELECT * FROM properties WHERE ';
$scopes = [];
foreach([$location,$category,$status] as $column => $condition) {
if ($condition) {
$scopes[] = $column.' LIKE \'%.$condition.'%\'';
}
}
$scopes = implode(' AND ',$scopes);
$sql .= $scopes.';';
// ...do what you need
There is a lot more advices for coding but maybe you just present it like dead-simple example, so I skip it.

Answer 2

OK I think what you are asking is a SELECT based on multiple columns in a table. Below is a script from my application that selects records from a table that checks for a hometeam and an away team:-
<?php
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "root";
$password = "";
$dbname = "localdb";
// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}
$sql = "SELECT hometeam FROM stats WHERE hometeam = 'Man City' AND awayteam = 'Sunderland'";
$result = $conn->query($sql);
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
// output data of each row
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
echo $row['hometeam'];
}
} else {
echo "0 results";
}
$conn->close();
?>

Answer 3

This should work:
$data = [
'property_type' => 'category_value', //$_GET['location']
'category' => 'location_value', //$_GET['category']
'status' => 'status_value' //$_GET['status']
];
$select = "";
$params = 0;
foreach($data as $k => $v){
if($params > 0){
$select .= " or ";
}
//add some better conditions
if(strlen($v) > 0){
$select .= "`$k` LIKE %$v%";
$params++;
}
}
$query = "select * from properties where " . $select;
print_r($query);