Eliminating white space in ajax search - php

Question

I've created an ajax search box using the keyup function to find profiles in my database.
$('#asearch').keyup(function(){
var search_term = $(this).val();
The problem I'm having is that in my search box once I hit the space bar after typing the first name my page is no longer populated with results. Looking to make it so I can search a first name enter a space and a last name and still have results.
if (isset($_POST['search_term'])){
$search_term = mysql_real_escape_string(htmlentities($_POST['search_term']));
if (!empty($search_term)){
$search = mysql_query("SELECT `firstname`, `lastname` FROM `tempusers`
WHERE `firstname` LIKE '%$search_term%'");
$result_count = mysql_num_rows($search);
while ($results_row = mysql_fetch_assoc($search)) {
echo '<li>', $results_row['firstname'],' ', $results_row['lastname'], '</li></br>';
}
}
}
Tried using a regex $search_term = preg_split('/[\s]+/', $search_term); but it did not work like I was hoping it would. Any tips one may have will be greatly appreciated

Answer 1

Use the trim() function:
Strip whitespace (or other characters) from the beginning and end of a
string.
Plugging it into your code:
$search_term = mysql_real_escape_string(htmlentities(trim($_POST['search_term'])));
By the way, is there a reason that you are using htmlentities on input?

Answer 2

Like Blam said before sometimes is needed to split search string.
I am often using this kind of approach:
$search_term = str_replace(' ','%', trim($search_term));
//"paul dyk" will be changed to "paul%dyk"
//% will match any charackers between those you need. So if you need filter out those names like "pauladyk juk" use $search_term = str_replace(' ',' % ', trim($search_term)); as then spaces must exist, but there can be any words between them.
$search = mysql_query("SELECT CONCAT_WS(' ',firstname, lastname) as full_name FROM tempusers WHERE CONCAT_WS(' ',firstname, lastname) LIKE '%".mysql_real_escape_string($search_term)."%'");
//I would use concat_ws to join strings so if one of them is NULL it will not matter. Using concate with NULL you get no result
while ($results_row = mysql_fetch_assoc($search)) {
echo '< li>' . $results_row['full_name']. '</ li>< br>';
}

Answer 3

Let's start with a "side comment":
You are just looking into the firstname column in your select query. One way to find "firstname lastname" might be to modify your search:
$search = mysql_query("SELECT firstname, lastname FROM tempusers
WHERE CONCAT(firstname, ' ', lastname) LIKE '%$search_term%'");
So if you want to find anything in the lastname you need to look there, too.
Then back to the search query:
What I usually do first is split the query into "tokens". I do that to make sure that I can also find - for example "lastname firstname" and similar queries (for example people might enter "paul dyk" and still want to find "paul van dyk").
A simple way of doing so is by using explode(' ', $search_term), which will work as long as your users behave. Another option would be the regex you mentioned in your question.
Then use these "subqueries" to search your database.
explode() will give you an array of words.
array(
'paul',
'van',
'dyk'
)
From there you need to build your SQL query:
// DON'T DO THE ESCAPE THING BEFORE THIS!
$words = explode(' ', $search_term)
$sql = 'SELECT `firstname`, `lastname` FROM `tempusers` WHERE 1 = 1';
for ($words as $word) {
if (!empty($word)) {
$word = mysql_real_escape_string($word);
$sql .= " AND (firstname LIKE '%" . $word . "%' OR lastname LIKE '%" . $word . "%')";
}
}
$search = mysql_query($sql);
That will build a query where it will search for each word "one by one" and not in a specific order. It's a bit slower, though.

Answer 4

$('#asearch').keyup(function(){
var search_term = this.value.trim();
});
or if insisiting on jQuery
$('#asearch').keyup(function(){
var search_term = $.trim($(this).val());
});
will trim away whitespace at the end/beginning before the value is sent serverside.