Multi search function (help)

hi all.... Is there a way to condition your search: -I have a form for four text boxes for search my Mysql... -I don't want to write 4 conditions and for SQL statements incase he decided not to search with all keywords (fields) - I have by example : name, lastname , nickname and phone form... I need a way to select my records even one or more field were null (searching only on of the above) because the following SQL will generate null result $name=$_POST['naame']; $lastname=$_POST['lastname']; $nickname=$_POST['nickname']; $m_date=$_POST['m_dateY']; echo $name.$lastname.$nickname.$m_date; $sql = mysql_query("SELECT id, name , lastname , m_date from users where name like binary '%$name%' and lastname like binary '%$lastname%' and nickname like binary '%$nickname%' and m_date= YEAR('$m_date') order by id ASC ") or die(mysql_error()); Thanks in advanced