PHP MySQL Search Doesn't Work? - php

Question

I have made a simple MySQL query search in one of my PHP site, but it doesn't work as I expect. When user search a term in my search bar, if the content he/she looking for doesn't exist, my function should return 'no results'. but it just display blank, no message nothing.
Here is my code for the search:
function querySearch($searchTerm) {
$query = "SELECT * FROM content_en WHERE content_body LIKE '%{$searchTerm}%' ORDER BY id DESC ";
return $query;
}
function getSearch($searchTerm) {
$queryContents= querySearch($searchTerm);
$exeQuery = mysql_query($queryContents);
while( $fetchSet = mysql_fetch_array($exeQuery) ){
if(empty($fetchSet)){
echo "No Results Found";
}else{
if(empty($fetchSet['content_title'])){
echo 'Sorry No results Found';
}else{
echo '<h2>'.$fetchSet['content_title'].'</h2><br/>';
echo '<div>'.shortText($fetchSet['content_body'], 220).'</div><br/><br/>';
}
}
}
}
Just my forcing it to work , so that's why there are two check for fetchSet array one for whole array one for only one key. But yea it doesn't work.

Answer 1

The reason it's not working is because there is either an error in your query or it has returned no results.
First, you should add some sort of error handling to your mysql_query, like this:
$exeQuery = mysql_query($queryContents) or die(mysql_error());
Second, the reason it would never print anything out if no results are found is because mysql_fetch_array will only loop over the results if there is a result to obtain. Therefore, if 0 rows are returned, the whole while loop is skipped completely. Instead you can use mysql_num_rows BEFORE you loop.
For example:
if (mysql_num_rows($exeQuery) > 0) {
while( $fetchSet = mysql_fetch_array($exeQuery) ){
echo '<h2>'.$fetchSet['content_title'].'</h2><br/>';
echo '<div>'.shortText($fetchSet['content_body'], 220).'</div><br/><br/>';
}
}
else {
echo "No Results Found";
}

Answer 2

Try this code
function querySearch($searchTerm) {
$query = "SELECT * FROM content_en WHERE content_body LIKE '%{$searchTerm}%' ORDER BY id DESC ";
return $query;
}
function getSearch($searchTerm) {
$queryContents = querySearch($searchTerm);
$exeQuery = mysql_query($queryContents);
if(mysql_num_rows($exeQuery) > 0)
{
while( $fetchSet = mysql_fetch_array($exeQuery) )
{
echo '<h2>'.$fetchSet['content_title'].'</h2><br/>';
echo '<div>'.shortText($fetchSet['content_body'], 220).'</div><br/><br/>';
}
}
else
{
echo "No Results Found";
}
}

Answer 3

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I do recall that mysql_fetch_array will work only if there are actual results fetched. The while loop will only run when the mysql_fetch_array function runs successfully. However, when the query returns no results, mysql_fetch_array will not run successfully, so the loop will not run, thus, your if block is not given the opportunity to run either.
Edit: Habeeb's code should fix your problem for you :p. Keeping my answer here though, since I do provide some explanation as to the problem with your code. I'm sure it will be a useful reference to someone who might look at this in the future.

Answer 4

Try This one..
function querySearch($searchTerm) {
$query = "SELECT * FROM content_en WHERE content_body LIKE '%{$searchTerm}%' ORDER BY id DESC";
return $query;
}
function getSearch($searchTerm) {
$queryContents= querySearch($searchTerm);
$exeQuery = mysql_query($queryContents);
$num_rows = mysql_num_rows($exeQuery);
if($num_rows)
{
while( $fetchSet = mysql_fetch_array($exeQuery) ){
echo '<h2>'.$fetchSet['content_title'].'</h2><br/>';
echo '<div>'.shortText($fetchSet['content_body'], 220).'</div><br/><br/>';
}
}else{
echo "No Result Found!";
}
}