I'm fairly new and playing around with searching databases in Rails. I have a model and database that has a list of names under the 'name' attribute. I want to be able to enter search keywords into a single search field and this input can be one word or two words or more, depending on how specific a result the user wants.
Right now, I'm using something ugly as shown below, which will do a maximum of 3 search terms. Is there a way to make this dynamic for 'search_length' keywords? The find method is clearly repetitive, but I'm not sure how to automate it and haven't found any useful suggestions elsewhere online.
def self.search(search)
if search
search_length = search.split.length
find(:all, :conditions => ['name LIKE ? AND name LIKE ? AND name LIKE ?',
"%#{search.split[0]}%", "%#{search.split[1]}%",
"%#{search.split[search_length1]}%"])
else
find(:all)
end
end
Other than this, loving Rails so far.
Thanks Much,
Lev
The code from Łukasz Śliwa works great if you close the name variable with the other % sign.
The complete code from above working for me. Great post.
def self.search(search)
if search
search_length = search.split.length
find(:all, :conditions => [(['name LIKE ?'] * search_length).join(' AND ')] + search.split.map { |name| "%#{name}%" })
else
find(:all)
end
end
Use something like this:
find(:all, :conditions => [(['name LIKE ?'] * search_length).join(' AND ')] + search.split.map { |name| "%#{name}" })
I looks strange but, first generate search_length times string 'name LIKE ?':
['name LIKE ?'] * search_length
then you have array with some keys, so let's join all of them with ' AND ':
["name LIKE ? ", "name LIKE ? ", "name LIKE ? "].join(' AND ')
and finally merge with another array.
formatted_columns = format_column_names(Sub.column_names)
where(formatted_columns.map {|cn| "#{cn} like ?" }.join("or "), *(["%#{search}%"] * formatted_columns.size))
this takes care of all columns as well as the correct amount of fields
