sql search against an array of checkboxes

[glennn.php]

given a Job Posting/Job Search script...

 

i have an array of checkboxes (Surgery, Optometry, Dentistry, etc...) that are imploded into an array of data and inserted into a table.field as part of a Job Posting.

 

$checkbox1 = $_POST['specialty']; 
$string1 = implode($checkbox1,", "); 
$checkbox2 = $_POST['subspecialty']; 
$string2 = implode($checkbox2,", "); 


$sql="INSERT INTO $tbl_user (username, password, specialty, subspecialty) 
VALUES (\"$_POST[username]\", \"$_POST[password]\", \"$string1\", \"$string2\")";

 

for the Job Search, i have the same array of checkboxes, of course, and i need to check the selected checkboxes against the database and return just the records that contain a particular value (Surgery, Dentistry, for instance)...

 

i know to do this:

 

$sql="SELECT * FROM $tbl_user WHERE specialty CONTAINS ($string1)";

 

 

but i don't know how to get the selected values into the Search query...

 

 

 

does that make sense?

 

appreciate any help!

 

GN

 

[drewbee]

Hi Glenn. You need to learn to normalize your data.

You should not be storing the specialties in the main table, but creating a child table for this.

 

ie specialty_id, job_id, specialty_name.

 

That way if you wanted to get the specialtyies of a job... select specialty_name from specialties where job_id = 'job_id'

 

[glennn.php]

thanks drewbee -

 

well, i'm only looking for ALL records that would contain ANY of the selected checkboxes, not where job_id = 'job_id'...

 

i tried this that works to an extent:

 

		$checkbox1 = $_POST['specialty']; 
	// if ($checkbox1 != '') {
	$string1 = implode($checkbox1,", ");
	// } else {
	// $string1 = 'null';
	// }

	$checkbox2 = $_POST['subspecialty']; 
	// if ($checkbox2 != '') {
	$string2 = implode($checkbox2,", ");
	// } else {
	// $string2 = 'null';
	// }

	$sql="SELECT * FROM $tbl_user WHERE specialty LIKE '%$string1%' OR subspecialty LIKE '%$string2%' ORDER BY contact_name ASC";

 

but it doesn't always work... i'm not always getting a record that contains a term that IS checked, and sometimes it returns ALL records that don't match...

 

ANY help?

 

Thanks