Codeigniter Search Query doesnt work correctly - php

Question

Basically works by displaying a form where the user can input 2 variables $no and $first but i can only get it to display a result when i enter both fields. I need it to work so when i enter 1 variable it will display results.
I thought i could use some sort of OR statement but i'm unsure how to implement it. Any help would be appreciated and i apologize if its not clear enough i'm fairly new when it comes to codeigniter.
Controller
public function query()
{
$no = $this->input->post('no');
$first = $this->input->post('first');
$this->load->model("test");
$data['query']=$this->test->query($no,$first);
$this->load->view('query',$data);
}
Model
function query($no, $first)
{
return $query = $this->db->get_where('table', array('no' => $no,
'first' => $first ))->result();
}
View
<?php foreach($query as $row): ?>
<tr>
<td><?php echo $row->no; ?></td>
<td><?php echo $row->date; ?></td>
<td><?php echo $row->first; ?></td>
</tr>
<?php endforeach; ?>

Answer 1

You can try preparing the where clause first
function query($no = "", $first = "")
{
$response = array();
if($first != "" || $no != ""){
$where = "";
if($no == "") $where = 'first = '.$first;
if($first == "") $where = 'no = '.$no;
if($first != "" && $no != "") $where = 'no = '.$no.' AND first = '.$first;
$fetch = $this->db->where($where)->from('table')->get();
if($fetch->num_rows() > 0) $response = $fetch->result_array();
}
return $response;
}
Hope I get the idea you want.

Answer 2

You need to separate out your WHERE arguments:
function query($no, $first)
{
$this->db->select();
$this->db->from('table');
$this->db->where('no', $no);
if (!empty($first))
{
$this->db->or_where('first', $first); // or use `and_where`
}
return $query = $this->db->get()->result();
}
Source: http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/database/active_record.html

Answer 3

function query($no = '%', $first = '%')
{
$this->db->where("'no' = $no OR 'first' = $first");
$query = $this->db->get('table');
if($query->num_rows() >= 0)
{
$return $query->result();
}
}
If you feed the values a wild card as default values either can be empty (in fact both can be empty to return all results) then just build the entire where statement inside double quotes.
You really don't have to feed the wildcards if you would rather not return all results if the strings are empty, but you should be doing some checking somewhere for empty results or no return.