Search based on URL varibles - php

Question

I want my search to focus on variables in the URL string. Currently it uses a form based search.
It uses this
<?php
include('db.php'); // include your code to connect to DB.
$tbl_name="mobile"; //your table name
$whereClauses = array();
if (! empty($_POST['Model'])) $whereClauses[] ="model='".mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['Model'])."'";
if (! empty($_POST['Mins'])) $whereClauses[] ="minutes='".mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['Mins'])."'";
if (! empty($_POST['Texts'])) $whereClauses[] ="texts='".mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['Texts'])."'";
if (! empty($_POST['Freegifts'])) $whereClauses[] ="free_gift='".mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['Freegifts'])."'";
if (! empty($_POST['Network'])) $whereClauses[] ="network_name='".mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['Network'])."'";
if (! empty($_POST['Merchant'])) $whereClauses[] ="merchant_category='".mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['Merchant'])."'";
$where = '';
if (count($whereClauses) > 0) { $where = ' WHERE '.implode(' AND ',$whereClauses); }
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM $tbl_name".$where);
?>
However, I have added this to my page:
<?php
$model = $_GET['model']; //gets model from URL
$mins = $_GET['mins']; //gets mins from URL
$texts = $_GET['texts']; //gets mins from URL
$freegift = $_GET['free-gift']; //gets mins from URL
$network = $_GET['network']; //gets mins from URL
$plan = $_GET['plan']; //gets mins from URL
?>
It needs to be so not all variables are required. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

There are a number of options that will return value or NULL:
<?php
$model = (isset($_GET['model']) ? $_GET['model'] : NULL);
$mins = (isset($_GET['mins']) ? $_GET['mins'] : NULL);
$texts = (isset($_GET['texts']) ? $_GET['texts'] : NULL);
$freegift = (isset($_GET['free-gift']) ? $_GET['free-gift'] : NULL);
$network = (isset($_GET['network']) ? $_GET['network'] : NULL);
$plan = (isset($_GET['plan']) ? $_GET['plan'] : NULL);
?>
This will get the variables from their correponding $_GET element, only if there is one set.
Alternative syntax (shorter):
<?php
$model = ($_GET['model'] ? $_GET['model'] : NULL);
$mins = ($_GET['mins'] ? $_GET['mins'] : NULL);
$texts = ($_GET['texts'] ? $_GET['texts'] : NULL);
$freegift = ($_GET['free-gift'] ? $_GET['free-gift'] : NULL);
$network = ($_GET['network'] ? $_GET['network'] : NULL);
$plan = ($_GET['plan'] ? $_GET['plan'] : NULL);
?>
Alternative (untested though):
<?php
$vars = array('model','mins','texts','free-gift','network','plan');
foreach($vars as $value) {
$$value = (isset($_GET[$value]) ? $_GET[$value] : NULL);
}
?>
EDIT:
In order to set a WHERE clause based on it, I suggest:
<?php
$vars = array('model','mins','texts','free-gift','network','plan');
foreach($vars as $value) {
$$value = (isset($_GET[$value]) ? $_GET[$value] : NULL);
unset $vars[$value]; //sweeping the NULL ones
}
$where_clause = $vars[0]; //the only remaining value after previous cleanup
?>