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htillberg

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Creating search KEYWORD query and still not finding the right syntax

Hi:

I am trying to create a keyword search in ASP that pulls from an ACCESS database.

I have tried two variations on the same code:

The first pulls all the records from the database (when I know not all are a match)

rsSearchAll.Source = "SELECT * FROM Sites_Orgs WHERE OrganizationName OR HistoricalSignificance LIKE '%keywords%" + Replace(rsSearchAll__MMColParam, "'", "''") & "' ORDER BY MailingListID ASC"

The second attempt pulls NOTHING from the database:
rsSearchAll.Source = "SELECT * FROM Sites_Orgs WHERE OrganizationName LIKE '%keywords%" + Replace(rsSearchAll__MMColParam, "'", "''") + "' OR HistoricalSignificance LIKE '%keywords%" + Replace(rsSearchAll__MMColParam, "'", "''") + "' ORDER BY MailingListID ASC"

First, does anyone know why this phenomenon is occurring. Second, does anyone know how to fix it. What I am trying to do is pull from a form with a textfield labeled (keywords) and match against two columns (OrganizationName and HistoricalSignificance in table Sites_Orgs). Any ideas?
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htillberg

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Hey, thanks, I will try these suggestions. I am using Access. Personally I would prefer SQL but I did not build this site that I am working on. I tried with * as a wildcard and got the same results before. My understanding of the  Replace(rsSearchAll__MMColParam, "'", "''") is that it is changing ' so that it can be interpreted by the query if that is part of the query. In other words ' is a special key and would not be interpreted unless this is accounted for. I didn't understand what it was doing there either until I was looking at another search engine someone created, where they created a function called EscapeApostrophe to escape the ' character as it has a special delineation.

In short, I think I need it, but if someone else thinks otherwise, please recommend accordingly!
Wow. I found the answer. Who would have thunk it:

rsSearchAll.Source = "SELECT * FROM Sites_Orgs WHERE OrganizationName LIKE'%"&keywords&Replace(rsSearchAll__MMColParam, "'", "''") &"%' OR HistoricalSignificance LIKE '%"&keywords&Replace(rsSearchAll__MMColParam, "'", "''")&"%' ORDER BY MailingListID ASC"

Even though I'm using Access---it doesn't like * as a wildcard (? why?) but it does need & as a concatenator. I'm giving out the points though, because your suggestion to move the keywords outside of the quotes was immensely helpful. Thanks
In Access 2000 you cannot refer to Replace() directly in a query. You can build a function which uses replace() in the code, and then call the function, but you cannot call replace() directly from a query.
am i incorrect about it working then? When I take the replace out of the query, it returns everything again? I believe you that you can't put Replace directly in a query...but why does it return everything when I take it out of the query?
I assume you are running A2000. On your machine try a simple query on a small table:

Select anyfld, replace(anyfld, "t","") from smalltable;

you should get an error message.

Does your query now return the correct number of records? If so, then you are not running A2000.