codeigniter search - php

Question

hello i have little problem
i want search in mysql by name
i have this code in search model
$this->db->limit($limit, $start);
$this->db->like("name",$by);
$res = $this->db->get('walls');
if ($res->num_rows() > 0)
return $res->result();
result for $by = "megan"; is working
but when $by = "megan fox"; is not working
in mysql name i have "megan fox";
I tried urldecode but to no avail.
i using codeigniter framework..
any ideas?

Answer 1

$this->db->limit($limit, $start);
$this->db->like("name",$by);
$res = $this->db->get('walls');
if ($res->num_rows() > 0)
return $res->result();
You might want to add BOTH,LEFT,RIGHT on your like() clause example
$this->db->like("name",$by,'BOTH'); // left and right wild card %name%
$this->db->like("name",$by,'LEFT'); // left wild card %name
$this->db->like("name",$by,'RIGHT'); // right wild card name%
You can read more at http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/database/active_record.html

Answer 2

You can first split the $by variable into separate values with something like this:
$by = explode(" ", $by);
and then try to make the like clause like this
$this->db->like("name",$by[0]);
$this->db->or_like("name",$by[1]);
It will produce something like this
WHERE name LIKE '%megan%' OR name LIKE '%fox%'
This assumes that you always pass 2 variables to the $by, seperated by space.
You have to adjust it to make sure it works in every case, for example when there is only one variable passed to the $by you should do a check for it.
And please note that it will be fairly slower than splitting the name and the surname into two separate fields in the table and querying each of them for a specific name or surname. You should do this if you care for optimization.

Answer 3

Use urldecode function to solve this
Try this into your model
$by= urldecode($by);
$this->db->limit($limit, $start);
$this->db->like("name",$by);
$res = $this->db->get('walls');
if ($res->num_rows() > 0)
return $res->result();