php/mysql advanced search page - php

Question

I faced a problem in developing advanced search code using php as an input and output, sql to select and filter data ..
php code:
<form action="index.php?Type=Advance" method="post">
<input type="text" name="name">
<input type="text" name="sponsor">
<select size="1" name="gender" id="">
<option value="male">male</option>
<option value="female">female</femal>
</select>
<select size="1" name="address" id="">
<option value="x">x</option>
<option value="y">y</option>
<option value="z">z</option>
</select>
<input type="submit">
</form>
Then i declare the variables
public function AdvanceSearch($name,$sponsor,$gender,$address)
{
$cheack = "";
if(isset($name)&&$name != ""){
$cheack.=" name = '$name' ";
}
if(isset($sponsor)&&$sponsor != ""){
$cheack.=" AND sponsor = '$sponsor' ";
}
if(isset($gender)&&$gender != ""){
$cheack.=" AND gender = '$gender' ";
}
if(isset($address) &&$address != "" ){
$cheack.=" AND workplace = '$address' ";
}
$DB = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table WHERE 1 = 1 ".$cheack);
echo "SELECT * FROM user WHERE ".$WHQ;
exit();
actually it works, however if i didn't insert the name ... the sql statement will be like this
SELECT *
FROM table
WHERE AND sponsor = 'www'
AND gender = 'male'
what if i want to search on the table but without inserting the name .. how can i let the sql statement works if i didn't inset the name.

Answer 1

A typical solution to this is always adding a true condition first, such as 1=1. The query without any extra conditions then becomes
SELECT * FROM table WHERE 1=1
and when you add any AND conditions you can just add them to the end, with no special case for the first or last condition:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE 1=1 AND sponsor = 'www' AND gender = 'male'
Note that if you used OR instead of AND the first condition should be false, like 0=1.

Answer 2

You can use a flag variable like :
$cheack = "";
$flag = False;
if(isset($name)&&$name != ""){
$cheack.=" name = '$name' ";
$flag =True;
}
if(isset($sponsor)&&$sponsor != ""){
if($flag){
$cheack.="AND ";
}
$cheack.="sponsor = '$sponsor' ";
}
if(isset($gender)&&$gender != ""){
if($flag){
$cheack.="AND ";
}
$cheack.="gender = '$gender' ";
}
if(isset($address) &&$address != "" ){
if($flag){
$cheack.="AND ";
}
$cheack.="workplace = '$address' ";
}