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PHP Integrating PHP with Databases Filtering Input for Queries Creating the Search Function

Igor Skoldin
Igor Skoldin
6,779 Points
Posted by Igor Skoldin
Igor Skoldin
6,779 Points

Example code does not work

functions.php (the example code posted in teacher notes)

function search_catalog_array($search, $limit = null, $offset = 0) {
    include("connection.php");

    try {
       $sql = "SELECT media_id, title, category,img 
         FROM Media
         WHERE title LIKE ?
         ORDER BY 
         REPLACE(
           REPLACE(
              REPLACE(title,'The ',''),
              'An ',
              ''
           ),
           'A ',
           ''
         )";
       if (is_integer($limit)) {
          $results = $db->prepare($sql . " LIMIT ? OFFSET ?");
         $results->bindValue(1,"%".$search."%",PDO::PARAM_STR);
          $results->bindParam(2,$limit,PDO::PARAM_INT);
          $results->bindParam(3,$offset,PDO::PARAM_INT);
       } else {
         $results = $db->prepare($sql);
         $results->bindValue(1,"%".$search."%",PDO::PARAM_STR);
       }
       $results->execute();
    } catch (Exception $e) {
       echo "Unable to retrieved results";
       exit;
    }

    $catalog = $results->fetchAll();
    return $catalog;
}

Invoked in catalog.php:

if( ! empty($search) ) {
  $catalog = search_catalog_array($search, $items_per_page, $offset);
}

A call of search_catalog_array($search, $items_per_page, $offset); returns an empty array. If we do var_dump($search, $items_per_page, $offset), we will see string(4) "ring" int(8) int(0).

However, when we call directly search_catalog_array('ring', $items_per_page, $offset); it returns search results.

What is wrong?

Igor Skoldin
Igor Skoldin
6,779 Points
Igor Skoldin
Igor Skoldin
6,779 Points

Fixed: it appeared that the problem was in the get_catalog_count function:

$result->bindValue(1, '%'.$search.'%', PDO::PARAM_STRING);

Instead of:

$result->bindValue(1, '%'.$search.'%', PDO::PARAM_STR);

so the whole thing worked well only when $search that was passed to get_catalog_count was null and was not used.