Display results based on URL path - php

Question

I'm trying to create a script that displays results based on URL path.
For example, I can have a URL like example.com/A/B/C/D/, example.com/A/B/C/ all the way to example.com/.
A = Year
B = Month
C = Day
D = Title
The script below does a good job of breaking it down.
$path = parse_url($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], PHP_URL_PATH);
$array = explode('/', $path);
The table in the database has a column called 'path'. The path contains '/A/B/C/D/'. Is there an easier way than using multiple if/else statements to accomplish this:
Empty path (home page, limit 5 results:
SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY post_date DESC LIMIT 5;
Search by year:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE path LIKE '/' . $array[1] . '/%';
Search by year and month
SELECT * FROM table WHERE path LIKE '/' . $array[1] . '/' . $array[2] . '/%';
Search by year and month and day
SELECT * FROM table WHERE path LIKE '/' . $array[1] . '/' . $array[2] . '/' . $array[3] . '/%;
Search by year and month and day and title
SELECT * FROM table WHERE path LIKE '/' . $array[1] . '/' . $array[2] . '/' . $array[3] . '/' . $array[4] . '/';
Obviously if the person tries to enter the values (letters) in a different order the results should not be found and an error page be displayed.

Answer 1

Use the array element count to generate your path.
if (count($array)) {
$sql = "SELECT * FROM table WHERE path LIKE '/" . implode($array, '/') . "/%'";
}
Please see SQL Injection

Answer 2

The more cleaner approach would be to define different REST calls for each of the path params. I would use a php micro framework like Flight to handle it. For example if some of the param is not specified then it would be routed to the next and so on. Thus it would be able to handle different params along with the param specific database call. By doing this would eliminate if else logic or any kind of ambiguity.
Look here for reference:
http://flightphp.com/learn#routing
Check the passing mechanism.