MYSQL search query in Joomla - php

Question

I am currently editing a (very messy!) custom AJAX filter component in order for a user to be able to search for times of events by time of day (Morning, Afternoon, Evening). The system currently searches records by hour of day (12, 08, etc) and uses the hour submitted in the filtering to perform a LIKE search on the database to return results.
I have grouped hours into time-of-day arrays as follows in the model for the filtering:
if($time == 'morning') {
$times = array('07', '08', '09', '10', '11');
}
if($time == 'afternoon') {
$times = array('12', '13', '14', '15', '16');
}
if($time == 'evening') {
$times = array('17', '18', '19', '20', '21');
}
The current query being used is as follows:
if ($time>0){
$query->where('a.startTime LIKE "%'.$time.'%"');
}
I need to change the query for it to be able to seach the database to check whether the value in the database 'time' field is in my $times array and also perform a like as it's only the first two characters of the string I need to be matching. This is because values in the database could be varying (15.30, 15.45, etc) but only need to match the hour (15).
I have tried looping through the items in my array creating a 'like' and 'or' query but with no success. Does anybody have any ideas?
Many Thanks

Answer 1

$per=array('morning'=>array(7, 8, 9, 10, 11),
'afternoon'=>array(12, 13, 14, 15, 16),
'evening'=>array(17, 18, 19, 20, 21));
$query->where('HOUR(a.startTime) IN ('.implode(',',$per[$need].')');
or
$per=array('morning'=>array('min'=>7, 'max'=>11),
'afternoon'=>array('min'=>12,'max'=> 16),
'evening'=>array('min'=>17,'max'=> 21));
$query->where('HOUR(a.startTime) >= '.$per[$need]['min'].' and HOUR(a.startTime)<='.$per[$need]['max']);

Answer 2

Maybe something like this
$time=15.30;//for example
if ($time>0){
$time=preg_replace('~\.(.*?$)~','',$time);//time is now 15
$morning = array('07', '08', '09', '10', '11');
$afternoon = array('12', '13', '14', '15', '16');
$evening = array('17', '18', '19', '20', '21');
if(in_array($time,$morning)){
echo 'morning';
}else if(in_array($time,$afternoon)){
echo 'afternoon';
}else if(in_array($time,$evening)){
echo 'evening';
}
$query->where('a.startTime LIKE "%'.$time.'%"');
}