CakePHP 1.3 query method gives SQL 1064 error - php

Question

I wrote a custom query to use in CakePHP 1.3 The query is as follows:
SELECT artists.id, artists.name, artists.image_id, genres.genre
FROM artists
LEFT JOIN coupling_artist_genre
ON artists.id = coupling_artist_genre.id_in
LEFT JOIN genres
ON coupling_artist_genre.id_out = genres.id
WHERE artists.name LIKE '%tee%'
AND genres.id IN (12,14)
ORDER BY artists.name ASC
LIMIT 0,25
When I call this like this:
$this -> Artist -> query ($sql);
I get this error:
1064: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds
to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '
However, when I copy the generated query and paste it into PHPMyAdmin it works fine. No warnings, no errors, and most importantly: the result I expect.
Does anyone know what could cause this difference between Cake and PMA?
Edit: This is how the query is generated:
$query = "SELECT artists.id, artists.name, artists.image_id";
if ($genres != ' ' && strlen ($genres) > 0)
{
$query .= ", genres.genre";
}
$query .= " FROM artists";
if ($genres != ' ' && strlen ($genres) > 0)
{
$query .= " LEFT JOIN coupling_artist_genre ON artists.id = coupling_artist_genre.id_in";
$query .= " LEFT JOIN genres ON coupling_artist_genre.id_out = genres.id";
}
$query .= " WHERE";
if ($searchString != '' && strlen ($searchString) > 0)
{
$searchString = $searchString == ' ' ? '' : $searchString;
$query .= " artists.name LIKE '%".$searchString."%'";
}
if ($searchString != ' ' && strlen ($searchString) > 0 && $genres != ' ' && strlen ($genres) > 0)
{
$query .= " AND";
}
if ($genres != ' ' && strlen ($genres) > 0)
{
$query .= " genres.id IN (".$genres.")";
}
$query .= " ORDER BY artists.name ASC LIMIT " . ($page - 1) * 25 . ",25";
$this -> set ('artists', $this -> Artist -> query ($query));

Answer 1

I think there are case when your queries end up like this:
" ...
WHERE
ORDER BY ... "
or
" ...
WHERE artists.name LIKE '%tee%'
AND
ORDER BY ... "
Try this:
$query .= " WHERE True ";
if ($searchString != '' && strlen ($searchString) > 0)
{
$searchString = $searchString == ' ' ? '' : $searchString;
$query .= " AND artists.name LIKE '%".$searchString."%'";
}
if ($genres != ' ' && strlen ($genres) > 0)
{
$query .= " AND genres.id IN (".$genres.")";
}
$query .= " ORDER BY artists.name ASC LIMIT " . ($page - 1) * 25 . ",25";
$this -> set ('artists', $this -> Artist -> query ($query));

Answer 2

Tried to post this earlier, but I couldn't without 100 reputation. Anyway here's the answer I tried to post earlier:
Dear visitors of this question. I am terribly sorry (especially for you ypercube because you took the time to think about AND answer my question!).
I just discovered that I made a very stupid mistake. Down in my controller, in a totally different method that shouldn't even be executed I had another query in a die() call. That was the query MySQL was complaining about. I never expected it to be executed but alas, it was the query causing my error. Seeing as I didn't need it anymore I deleted it and my error was gone.
Once again, I'm sorry for all of you that put time in this question. I shall try to be more careful in the future!