However, it would be wise to include some rudimentary cleaning [string escaping] in the function itself (just in case it ever got called with raw input). So I’m going to update the code in this post.

// call the function, it returns a query string
$queryString = multiquery("some search terms", "table_to_select_from");
//print the querystring, use this querystring to get whatever recordset you want
echo $queryString;

// Original code: http://www.acuras.co.uk/articles/2-php-multi-word-mysql-search-algorithm-and-output
function multiquery($multiquery, $vartable) {
// escape the input string, I know mysql_escape_string is deprecated, but I don't want to mess with another function tonight...
$multiquery = mysql_escape_string($multiquery);
// checks if a search has been submitted
if(!empty($multiquery))
{
// the table to search
$table = $vartable;
// explode search words into an array
$arraySearch = explode(" ", $multiquery);
// table fields to search
$arrayFields = array(0 => "Long_Desc", 1 => "Shrt_Desc", 2 => "ComName", 3 => "ManufacName");
$countSearch = count($arraySearch);
$a = 0;
$b = 0;
$query = "SELECT * FROM ".$table." WHERE (";
$countFields = count($arrayFields);
while ($a < $countFields)
{
while ($b < $countSearch)
{
$query = $query."$arrayFields[$a] LIKE '%$arraySearch[$b]%'";
$b++;
if ($b < $countSearch)
{
$query = $query." AND ";
}
}
$b = 0;
$a++;
if ($a < $countFields)
{
$query = $query.") OR (";
}
}
// just make a querystring "$query", don't actually get the query_result here
$query = $query.")";
//$query_result = mysql_query($query);
//return the querystring for use outside the function
return $query;
//disable this portion, since we're not working with a query result anymore (just a querystring to be used later)
if(1 < 1)
{
echo '<p>No matches found for "'.$search.'"</p>';
}
else
{
echo '<p>Search Results for "'.$search.'":</p>'."\n\n";
// output list of articles
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($query_result))
{
// output whatever you want here for each search result
echo '<a href="index.php?id='.$row['id'].'">'.$row['title'].'</a><br />';
}
}
}
else
{
// display a welcome page
}
}
// end search function

THE END.

If JD is using it on komparison then it should work with PHP5, our servers are running PHP 5.2.