searching for some or everything

[JayNo]

I'm having trouble searching for things from my database.

I have a drop down list of clients, eg..
- all clients <initially selected>
- Asahi
- Budweiser
- Corona
- Heineken

if the user doesn't select anything I want to search for everything in the database no matter what the client name. If a client is selected i want it to search for data from only that client. The only problem is that there is about 20 other fields that have areas like this (so i can't just set up a different query for each)

Anyone have an idea as to how to set up a search function to do this.

My code right now looks like this:

[code]$client = $_POST['client'];
if ($client == 'All'){
  $clientCompare = "NOT IN ('$client')";
}else{
  $clientCompare = "= '$client'";
}
mysql_select_db($mysqldatabase, $mysqlconnection);
$exhibitQuery = "SELECT * FROM tbl_test1 WHERE col_clientName $clientCompare";[/code]
Right now this works but only when there is a client selected on the form. but if i put in the "NOT IN()" directly into the WHERE clause it works... this is where i'm frustrated.

I will need other conditions for the other form data, but just testing right now.

Thanks.

[craygo]

[code]$client = $_POST['client'];
if ($client == 'All'){
  $clientCompare = "%";
}else{
  $clientCompare = "$client";
}
mysql_select_db($mysqldatabase, $mysqlconnection);
$exhibitQuery = "SELECT * FROM tbl_test1 WHERE col_clientName LIKE '$clientCompare'";[/code]

Try that

Ray

[JayNo]

Thank you Ray, this will probably be the answer for the other fields too. Would this work for numbers as well?