having a for loop inside a mysql SELECT statement

[micmola]

Is it possible to have a loop inside a mysql select statement? If yes, can someone please give me an idea.

[PFMaBiSmAd]

Without an example of what you are trying to accomplish, the answer would be that almost anything is possible in programming, as long as it makes sense.

[DavidAM]

... as long as it makes sense.

I'd strike that last part; I've seen a lot of things done in programming that made absolutely no sense.

[micmola]

An example of having a for loop inside a mysql SELECT statement is below:

 

$query = "SELECT * FROM car WHERE offer_type = '" . $transaction_type . 

                       for ($x=0; x<count($sentence_array); $x++) {
                 "' AND car_name = '" . $sentence_array[$x] . 
	  "' OR car_color = '" . $sentence_array[$x] . 
	  "' OR car_seats = '" . $sentence_array[$x] . 
       }

"'";

 

The sentence_array contains one word per element. Please someone help me on this.

[DavidAM]

You want to build a query string using a for loop, not actually run a for loop inside a SELECT statement.

 

Actually, you can do it without a for loop, just use implode(). Something like this should work:

$query = "SELECT * FROM car WHERE offer_type = '" . $transaction_type . " AND ";
$query .= "( car_name IN ('" . implode("' OR '", $sentence_array) . "')";
$query .= " OR car_color IN ('" . implode("' OR '", $sentence_array) . "')";
$query .= " OR car_seats IN ('" . implode("' OR '", $sentence_array) . "')";
$query .= ')';

 

Note: Untested. (I don't have an environment here to test with).

Note: Make sure you sanitize those inputs if they are coming from a user. (see mysql_real_escape_string())

[sasa]

change

implode("' OR '", $sentence_array)

to

implode("','", $sentence_array)

[DavidAM]

Oops , Thanks sasa. I was originally going a different route and didn't think to change that.