people search for soemthing
that search could be on one or more column(s)
they could use an or on the same column
..nut its all part of the SQL
the SQL is a translation of waht you want the db to return
lets say you a tabel containing books, along with say a user ratings
you could ask the db to return all rows containing SQL in the title and a rating of '5'
eg
Code:
select my,column,list from mytable where title like "%SQL%" and rating>=5
assuming the max rating was 5, and it was a decent bookstore that should return at least one row ('Simply SQL' by a certain Mr R Limeback)
you coudl refine the where by adding more columns
eg
where businesstype="REST" AND StreetName like "%Main%" and BuildingNo>800 and BUILDINGNO<=900 and businessname like "%donald%"
as to how you present that sort of information to your users is up to you
you could populate a list box of rows matching those criteria
if you are using a web interfazce you could use AJAX to filter down the number of possibilities
fer istance Ive seen soem sites that have categories of say restaurants
eg
restaurants (150)
..fine dining (12)
..italian(30)
...French(.... and so on
where the various categories county up to the 150
the like if digikey, CPC/Farnell and others have a very good drill down approach, allowing you to add or remove search criteria till the customer finds what they want.