What potential pitfalls can arise when using multiple search terms in a PHP search engine?

When using multiple search terms in a PHP search engine, one potential pitfall is that the search results may not accurately reflect the user's intent if the search terms are not properly handled. To solve this issue, it is important to properly sanitize and validate the search terms before using them in the search query to prevent SQL injection attacks and ensure that the search results are relevant to the user's input. 

// Sanitize and validate search terms
$search_terms = isset($_GET['search']) ? htmlspecialchars($_GET['search']) : '';
$search_terms = trim($search_terms);
$search_terms = mysqli_real_escape_string($connection, $search_terms);

// Perform search query with sanitized search terms
$query = "SELECT * FROM products WHERE name LIKE '%$search_terms%' OR description LIKE '%$search_terms%'";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Display search results
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    // Display search results
}

Keywords

PHP search engine multiple search terms query optimization SQL injection

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