= $min_length){ // if query length is more or equal minimum length then
$query = htmlspecialchars($query);
// changes characters used in html to their equivalents, for example: < to >
$query = mysql_real_escape_string($query);
// makes sure nobody uses SQL injection
$raw_results = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM postalcodes
WHERE (`postal_code` LIKE '%".$query."%') OR (`serviceable` LIKE '%".$query."%')") or die(mysql_error());
// * means that it selects all fields, you can also write: `id`, `postal_code`, `serviceable`
// postalcodes is the name of our table
// '%$query%' is what we're looking for, % means anything, for example if $query is Hello
// it will match "hello", "Hello man", "gogohello", if you want exact match use `title`='$query'
// or if you want to match just full word so "gogohello" is out use '% $query %' ...OR ... '$query %' ... OR ... '% $query'
if(mysql_num_rows($raw_results) > 0){ // if one or more rows are returned do following
while($results = mysql_fetch_array($raw_results)){
// $results = mysql_fetch_array($raw_results) puts data from database into array, while it's valid it does the loop
echo "".$results['postal_code']."
".$results['serviceable']."";
// posts results gotten from database(title and text) you can also show id ($results['id'])
}
}
else{ // if there is no matching rows do following
echo "We do not yet have that Postal Code in our database. Please contact us by using the 'Contact' form on this website (but please do not phone us or ask us to phone you), provide your full street address and Postal Code and ask us to see if service is available or not. We will usually reply within 24 hours, 7 days a week. Thanks!
";
echo "Nous n'avons pas encore ce code postal dans notre base de données. Veuillez nous contacter le formulaire « Contactez-nous » sur ce site Web (mais n'hésitez pas à nous téléphoner ou demandez-nous de vous téléphoner), indiquez votre adresse complète et votre code postal et demandez-nous si le service est disponible ou ne pas. Nous répondrons habituellement dans les 24 heures, 7 jours par semaine. Merci!
";
}
}
else{ // if query length is less than minimum
echo "Minimum length is ".$min_length;
}
?>
Output table: