Search for all elements in a PHP array - php

Question

With the updated code below, my search is working, but only using the last word in the Array. Is there a way to search the MySQL column using all words the user inputted?
Note: All input sanitization and escaping is completed in my code but not shown here.
I have two PHP arrays: $search_exploded (user inputted search terms) and $metaphoneArr (metaphones of keywords in MySQL).
I'm cycling through $search_exploded and $metaphoneArr, and if the Levenshtein is less than 2, then I'm adding the metaphone element to a third array called $levenResultsArr.
In MySQL, I'm joining two tables, and if there's a result in my third array ($levenResultsArr) that matches a row in my metaphone_col, then I want the results printed. Somehow, though, I am not referencing the third array correctly in the MySQL statement.
Any advice? Here is part of my PHP code.
$levenResultsArr = array();
foreach ($search_exploded as $search_each => $searchWord) {
$search_each2 = metaphone($searchWord);
echo $search_each2 . "<br/>";
foreach ($metaphoneArr as $metaword => $val) {
$lev = levenshtein($search_each2, $val);
if ($lev < 2) {
array_push($levenResultsArr, $search_each2);
}
}
}
// And shown below is the MySQL statement
$constructs = "
SELECT vt.idvideolist,
vt.videotitle,
vt.videodescription
FROM videolist_tbl vt
INNER JOIN keyword__video k2v ON (vt.idvideolist = k2v.video_id)
INNER JOIN keywords_tbl k ON (k2v.keyword_id = k.idkeywords_tbl)
WHERE k.metaphone_col = '$search_each2'
";
It's only searching using the last word in the array instead of all words in the array.

Answer 1

You're correct that you aren't referencing your array correctly in your query. You are simply referencing the variable '$search_each2'. You want to check the entire array. The best way to do this would to be to convert the array to a string using implode and using the MySQL IN clause. We need to modify the array first to format it correctly:
foreach($levenResultsArr as &$foo){
$foo = "'".$foo."'"; //add single quotes around each object in the array
}
$levenAsStr = implode(",", $levenResultsArr);
Then simply change your last line to the following:
WHERE k.metaphone_col IN (".$levenAsStr.")";
Did this from memory because I'm not in a testing environment, please let me know if there are any syntax errors. Should work for you!

Answer 2

Without seeing more of the code its a bit difficult to determine what is going on. A couple of thoughts though.
What var is the array containing all search terms?
I noticed you are pushing items into $levenResultsArr. I don't see it being used in the query though.
If it is $search_each_2 you may try using the IN syntax:
WHERE k.metaphone_col IN '$search_each2';
This will only match exact values however. i.e.:
some value does not return if the IN array contains value. The array would have to contain some value
If you need it to match partial searches you may try using LIKE with wildcards: %
WHERE k.metaphone_col LIKE "%searchTerm1%"
OR k.metaphone_col LIKE "%searchTerm2%"
OR k.metaphone_col LIKE "%searchTerm3%"
You could potentially use the implode function to create the sql string from the array: http://php.net/manual/en/function.implode.php