[SOLVED] including variables in a query EVEN if they're empty

[glennn.php]

ok, sorry for my ignorance, but i'm curious about whether to do one of two things:

 

Given a form with about 10 choices, many (all) of which might return an array -

 

$offering_sql might contain a few values, or it might contain none. if it contains none, then this selects ALL the values in that table field, i'm pretty sure that's obvious (not sure of anything today).

 

my query might be built like so:

SELECT fice FROM characteristics WHERE $offering_sql AND $public_private_sql AND $variable AND ...

 

 

My question is, considering that some values will be empty, is it better to do this:

if ($offerings != '') {
$offering_sql = "offering IN ($offering_sql)";
} else {
if ($offerings == '') {
$offering_sql = "offering LIKE '%'";
}

 

or this:

if ($offerings != '') {
$offering_sql = "offering IN ($offering_sql) AND";
} else {
if ($offerings == '') {
$offering_sql = "";
}

 

in other words, IF ONLY ONE FORM CATEGORY OF TEN IS CONTAINS VALUES, should my query be:

SELECT fice FROM characteristics WHERE offering LIKE '%' AND public_private LIKE '%'  AND (value) LIKE '%'  AND (value) LIKE '%'  AND (value) LIKE '%'  AND (value) LIKE '%' ...

 

or should i configure those if statements to return '' if i can... does it matter either way?

 

don't know what to consider while considering these choices...

 

thanks for anyone's help,

GN

 

 

 

[sasa]

try

$where = array();
if ($offerings != '') {
$where[] = "offering IN ($offering_sql)";
} 
if ($some_field != '') {
$where[] = "some_field IN ($some_field_sql)";
} 
//etc.
$where = count($where) ? implode(' AND ', $where) : 1;
$sql = "SELECT fice FROM characteristics WHERE $where";

[glennn.php]

this returns

 

Warning: mysql_fetch_row(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/coburncr/public_html/hepinc/admin_characteristics.php on line 405

 

 

this is returning no values no matter how many options are chosen in the form. "implode(',',$offering);" would be something like 03,04,05

$offering = $_POST['highest_deg'];
if ($offering != '') {
$offerings = implode(',',$offering);
} else {
if ($offering == '') {
$offerings = '';
}
}

$where = array();
if ($offerings != '') {
$where[] = "offering IN ($offering_sql)";
} 

$where = count($where) ? implode(' AND ', $where) : 1;

 

 

 

$where holds "offering IN ()" no matter what. i'm trying to get it to EITHER have "offering IN (03,04,05) AND" OR ""...

[sasa]

in implode you create variable $offerings and in 2nd part you use $offering_sql

[glennn.php]

oops - right - was playing with those conditions and overlooked that. i think that worked.

[glennn.php]

awesome - thanks. i see how that works, now... beautiful, thanks.

 

GN