Refining my search app..

Here's the skinny: I'm starting development on a small search application & need some input on a small roadblock I've run into.. What I need: - Script needs to be able to search database for matching queries in a specified column. (Ex: from a dropdown list the user selects "foo" and types in "bar" for a query.. we need to return all results matching "bar" from the "foo" column.) Pretty basic, with the exception of the second part: - Depending on the column-to-search they select from the drop-down list, I need to change the structure of the query. This is needed because SOME queries will need to be structured to select all records from a column greater than / less than (insert number here) as opposed to a standard select * where 'x' like '%y%' type query. I would LIKE to keep the code relatively clean & don't want to flood it with tons of "if" statements if at all possible.. which is why I'm asking for your help. Any thoughts on a simple way to accomplish this?.. anyone tried something of this nature before? Thank you in advance! Please let me know if you need additional detail.. Ryan