Php Like Help

[mattm1712]

hi i am trying to return values in my data base which are like what my varibale is

 

say my data base has these values is

 

1 Manchester Utd

2 Chester

3 Macclessfiled

4 Liverpool

 

 

and i have a variable $tl = "chester city";

 

and i wanted to echo out the values that look like 'chester city' eg i want a list that has chester in it

 

 

$tl = "chester city";

$query2 = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM teams LIKE '{$tl}'");

 

while($array2 = mysql_fetch_assoc($query2))

{

echo $array2['name'];

 

}

 

why whould this not work?

 

cheers matt

[Jessica]

I've moved this to MySQL.

 

The simple answer is that LIKE works using wildcards, and can only find matches where the search term is within the result.

So LIKE('%Chester%') would match 'Chester City', but LIKE('%Chester City%') will not match 'Chester'.

 

[ManiacDan]

LIKE is an operator that allows for wild cards. You can find anything LIKE '%a%', which is anything with a lowercase A in it. It's not a magical "read this and figure out what's similar" function. You have "chester city." Even if you split that into WHERE field LIKE '%chester%' AND field LIKE '%city%' you'd still get Man U in there.

 

Also, your query is fundamentally wrong, you can't just FROM table LIKE string

[Beeeeney]

hi i am trying to return values in my data base which are like what my varibale is

 

say my data base has these values is

 

1 Manchester Utd

2 Chester

3 Macclessfiled

4 Liverpool

 

 

and i have a variable $tl = "chester city";

 

and i wanted to echo out the values that look like 'chester city' eg i want a list that has chester in it

 

 

$tl = "chester city";

$query2 = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM teams LIKE '{$tl}'");

 

while($array2 = mysql_fetch_assoc($query2))

{

echo $array2['name'];

 

}

 

why whould this not work?

 

cheers matt

 

Now don't quote me on this because I'm a beginner but that's not going to echo anything because you're trying to call something which doesn't exist.

 

If in your DB you has "Chester City" and you queried something LIKE "Chester%", it would return "Chester City", but not the other way around.

 

I'm sure one of the experts on here will correct me if I'm wrong.

[Barand]

Example

 

mysql> SELECT * FROM teams;
+----+-----------------------------+
| id | team_name				   |
+----+-----------------------------+
|  1 | History of Chester FA Clubs |
|  2 | Chester					 |
|  3 | Chester City			    |
|  4 | chester United			  |
|  5 | manchester united		   |
+----+-----------------------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT * FROM teams
   -> WHERE team_name LIKE '%chester%';
+----+-----------------------------+
| id | team_name				   |
+----+-----------------------------+
|  1 | History of Chester FA Clubs |
|  2 | Chester					 |
|  3 | Chester City			    |
|  4 | chester United			  |
|  5 | manchester united		   |
+----+-----------------------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

[Jessica]

Barand, I'm a little confused what your example is supposed to show?

[ManiacDan]

Barand was proving that even if you used LIKE properly, it would still return both terms with "chester" in them, not just "chester city"

[Jessica]

Right. I guess I was just confused because his first query returns the same results because he doesn't have any without 'chester' in them? *shrug*

[Barand]

And I was also showing how the query should be written

[ManiacDan]

The inconsistent spacing in [ code ] tags is starting to make me twitch.

[Barand]

Annoys the hell out of me. Impossible to post ASCII artwork

[ManiacDan]

Annoys the hell out of me. Impossible to post ASCII artwork

I first noticed it when I tried to post a "picture" of my dog.

[Barand]

Got a couple of labradors myself. I look forward to seeing that when they fix the board.

[ManiacDan]

It was here. I fixed it for the new poorly spaced forum.