Querying from a database

Question

Hi,
I would like someone to help me coding the search from a database.
I have a html document which asks for a title or an author. My servlet should execute the query using the given title or author retrieving data from the database.
I am trying to execute this query which i know as in sql.
Select Authors.FirstName, Authors.LastName, Titles.Title from Titles, Authors, AuthorISBN where (FirstName = req.getParameter("keyword") OR Title =req.getParameter("keyword") ) AND Authors.AuthorID=AuthorISBN.AuthorID AND AuthorISBN.ISBN=Titles.ISBN
I am getting sqlexceptions if i execute this query in the jdbc. Please someone help me in coding this in jdbc appropriately.
Thank you.

Answer 1

You are getting errors because that string is not valid SQL. Write a string expression that does produce valid SQL, something like this:
String sql = "Select Authors.FirstName, Authors.LastName, Titles.Title from Titles, Authors, AuthorISBN where (FirstName = " + req.getParameter("keyword") + " OR Title = " + req.getParameter("keyword") + " ) AND Authors.AuthorID=AuthorISBN.AuthorID AND AuthorISBN.ISBN=Titles.ISBN;
You'll have to hack around with it to make it work. I am willing to bet you don't get it right the first time. Use System.out.println(sql) to check what you are producing.