How can PHP beginners approach creating a custom search function for their website and what resources are available to help them?

To create a custom search function for a website, PHP beginners can start by defining the search form in their HTML code and then creating a PHP script to handle the search query. They can use SQL queries to search the database for relevant results based on the user input. Additionally, beginners can utilize PHP frameworks like Laravel or CodeIgniter to streamline the process and access tutorials and documentation to guide them through the implementation.

<?php
// Connect to the database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "database";
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

// Handle search query
if(isset($_GET['search'])) {
    $search = $_GET['search'];
    $sql = "SELECT * FROM table WHERE column LIKE '%$search%'";
    $result = $conn->query($sql);

    if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
        while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
            echo "Result: " . $row['column'] . "<br>";
        }
    } else {
        echo "No results found.";
    }
}

// Close connection
$conn->close();
?>