Showing unique search results

[Stevo]

Hey, I can't figure out how to do something. I have a script that searches a table and returns each entry that contains one or more of the keywords. The problem is that it shows the same result for each keyword that shows up. I want each entry to only show up once. I'm not sure what the best way to do this is. Also, is there any way to sort the results depending on how many keywords show up in an entry?

Here's the script I have so far:

PHP Code:

<?php
include("config.php");
include("layout_header.php");

echo "<table class=\"table\" cellspacing=\"0\"><tr class=\"title\"><td>Search</td></tr>\n";
echo "<tr class=\"content\"><td>\n";

if(!$_GET['keywords']){

echo "<form action=\"$PHP_SELF\" method=\"get\">\n";
echo "<input type=\"text\" name=\"keywords\">\n";
echo "<input type=\"submit\">\n";
echo "</form>\n";

}else{

$keywords_array = explode(" ",$_GET['keywords']);

foreach($keywords_array as $keyword){

$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `hlcd_clans` WHERE `name` OR `description` LIKE '%$keyword%'");

if(mysql_numrows($query) < 1){
echo "Your search returned no results. <a href=\"$PHP_SELF\">Back</a>\n";
}

while($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($query)){

$id = $myrow['id'];
$name = $myrow['name'];
$description = $myrow['description'];

echo "<a href=\"listing.php?id=$id\">$name</a><br>$description<br><br>\n";
}

}
}

echo "</td></tr></table>\n";

include("layout_footer.php");
?>

Any help would be appreciated.

[Sayonara]

I am not sure what it is you want to make unique. Do you mean for each keyword, you want only one result returned, or each result should only be returned once regardless of how many keyword matches there are?

For the second part of your question, you are delivering your search results into an array. You could therefore use some string matching to reorder the array based on the keywords.

[Stevo]

I want each result to only show up once regardless of how many keywords there are.

[AaronW]

You're running a query inside a loop. That's rarely a good idea.

Try this:

PHP Code:

<?
  ...
  $query = "SELECT * FROM hlcd_clans WHERE";

  foreach ($_GET['keywords'] as $keyword)
    $query .= " (name LIKE '%".$keyword."%' OR description LIKE '%".$keyword."%') OR";

  $result = mysql_query (substr ($query, 0, -3));
  ...
?>

Then $result will hold all the rows and you can loop through it using mysql_fetch_assoc as usual. One query.

[Sayonara]

Snappy

[Stevo]

I got it working. Thanks for the help!