What are some best practices for implementing a search function in PHP that filters results by location?

When implementing a search function in PHP that filters results by location, it's important to first capture the user's location input and then use that information to query the database for relevant results. One common approach is to use a combination of user input and geolocation data to filter results based on proximity to the specified location.

// Assuming you have a form where users can input their location
$user_location = $_POST['location'];

// Use a geocoding API to convert the user's location into latitude and longitude
$geocoded_location = geocode_location($user_location);
$latitude = $geocoded_location['latitude'];
$longitude = $geocoded_location['longitude'];

// Query the database for results within a certain radius of the user's location
$results = $pdo->query("SELECT * FROM locations 
                        WHERE SQRT(POW(latitude - $latitude, 2) + POW(longitude - $longitude, 2)) < $radius");