Re: String within a string

Each item within double quotes is a literal string. The example you inquire about dynamically builds an SQL statement. For example, if $searchtype is "author_name" and $searchterm is "Rasmus", then you would build a statement like: select * from books where author_name like '%Rasmus%'; The SQL statement should be terminated by a semicolon, I believe, and that appears to be missing from your example. "Beginning of double quote and then beginning single quote beacuse it is the beginning of a string which then ends before the variable $searchterm." This is incorrect. The $searchterm is a part of the string. In the SQL statement above, '%Ramus' is the result of concatenating "'%" with the value of $searchterm with "%'". Basically, you just want to achieve your SQL statement, regardless of the logic you use to do that. An SQL statement is just a string, so there are numerous ways to contruct one. Chris Anthony Ritter wrote:

I want to make sure about the syntax using mysql and PHP. Here is the line of code: $query="SELECT * FROM books WHERE ". $searchtype. " LIKE '%" .$searchterm. "%' "; ............................................. Am I correct that the reason for the single quote within the expression above is that: "SELECT * FROM books WHERE" // Beginning and end double quotes before the variable $searchtype . // concatation operator $searchtype // variable . // concatation operator "LIKE '%" // Beginning of double quote and then beginning single quote beacuse it is the beginning of a string which then ends before the variable $searchterm. . // concatation operator $searchterm // variable . // concatation operator "%' "; // beginning of double quote for regex synmbol which then ends the string and then an end double quote. Thank you. Tony Ritter