How to implode columns and their value in select query? - php

Question

I have array of columns and their values selected by user. I need to perform search based on these columns and values.
For instance, a user choose:
morning(column) => Thurs,Sun(values)
afternoon(column) => Sat(values)
Now, how do I search for records that match the columns and the values? I'm using PDO.
the arrays:
//columns
var_dump($cols);
array (size=3)
0 => string 'morning' (length=7)
1 => string 'morning' (length=7)
2 => string 'afternoon' (length=9)
var_dump($days);
//values
array (size=3)
0 => string 'Thrs' (length=4)
1 => string 'Sun' (length=3)
2 => string 'Sat' (length=3)
Sample Columns and values stored in the database,for a record.So , I want to use the above days and columns as search criteria.
In the following record, this user has
'morning' => string 'Thrs'
'afternoon' => string 'Fri,Sat'
'evening' => ''
My search criteria for morning is, Thurs and Sun. But this user only available on Thurs in the morning. SO 1 criteria is met.
Next for afternoon, this user available on Fri, Sat. Bu my search needs only Sat. Since either one is met so this criteria is met.
But let say my search criteria is evening only instead of morning and afternoon. Then this user will not selected as he/she not available on evenings.
Hope you understand how it goes..If not feel free to ask. Thank you.
array (size=1)
0 =>
array (size=25)
'postUUID' => string '5623853773026' (length=13)
'subid' => string '36' (length=2)
'subname' => string 'Muay Thai' (length=9)
'catID' => string '4' (length=1)
'catname' => string 'Martial Arts' (length=12)
'pricing' => string '200' (length=3)
'post_status' => string '0' (length=1)
'UUID' => string '562385374bddf' (length=13)
'Name' => string 'Kalaivani Nair' (length=14)
'Phone' => string '012345666' (length=9)
'Email' => string 'kalaivaninair#ymail.com' (length=23)
'location' => string 'kajang' (length=6)
'lat' => string '2.993518' (length=8)
'lon' => string '101.7874058' (length=11)
'DateReg' => string '2015-10-18 19:40:39' (length=19)
'Reputation' => string '0' (length=1)
'ReviewPlus' => string '' (length=0)
'ReviewNeg' => string '' (length=0)
'Sex' => string 'f' (length=1)
'centre' => string '0' (length=1)
'morning' => string 'Thrs' (length=4)
'afternoon' => string 'Fri,Sat' (length=7)
'evening' => string '' (length=0)
'catid' => string '4' (length=1)
'distance' => string '0' (length=1)
EDITED based on steve's answer
"avail":["Wed-2","Wed-3"]//JSON string
$data = json_decode($return, true);//decoded
$avail = $data['avail'];//stored into database
if($avail != ""){
foreach($avail as $k=>$v)
{
echo $v;
$array = explode('-', $v);
$day =$array[0]; // Languages
$column = $array[1]; // English
echo"<br/>";
if($column == 1)
{
$col = "morning";
}
if($column == 2)
{
$col = "afternoon";
}
if($column == 3)
{
$col = "evening";
}
echo $col ."=>". $day;
echo $sql=" SELECT * , (3956 * 2 * ASIN(SQRT( POWER(SIN(('$lat' - lat) * pi()/180 / 2), 2) +COS('$lat' * pi()/180) * COS(lat * pi()/180) * POWER(SIN(('$lon' - lon) * pi()/180 / 2), 2) ))) as distance
from posts,subjects WHERE ('posts.".$col."' LIKE '%".$day."%') AND posts.catID = '$catid' AND posts.subname LIKE '%$subject%' AND posts.subid = subjects.subid AND posts.catID = subjects.catid AND posts.pricing <= '$rate' having distance <= '$distance' order by distance ";
echo"<br/>";
// array_push($cols,$col);
// array_push($days,$day);
}
}
$stmt =connection::$pdo->prepare($sql);
$stmt->execute();
$place=array();
while ($row = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
$place[] = $row;
}

Answer 1

Use the LIKE function in MySQL to search for strings within your columns.
In your first example ,so search for either a Thursday or Sunday morning:
SELECT * FROM `tableName` WHERE (`morning` LIKE '%Thrs%' OR `morning` LIKE '%Sun%');
To search for either a Friday or Saturday afternoon:
SELECT * FROM `tableName` WHERE (`afternoon` LIKE '%Fri%' OR `afternoon` LIKE '%Sat%');
This would be sufficient for your scenario where the list of potential values is short. However in conventional relational databases it is often good practice to move columns with multiple values to a separate table rather than using comma seperated values within a single column. This scales better through the use of indexing and offers more flexibility in terms or the queries you can run.