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Why doesn't this work

Because there is no conditional on fname.

I believe this is what you mean:
SELECT client_id,fname,lname
FROM clients
WHERE fname = '$search_val' OR lname = '$search_val'

Hi there Discord,

Welcome to the forum :)

Good news is you are almost there, try this:-

"SELECT `client_id`, `fname`, `lname` FROM `clients` WHERE `fname` = '".$search_val."' OR `lname` = '".$search_val."' ";

That should be ok, you see the logic there hopefully,

[EDIT:] Great minds think alike ;)

Cheers,
MRb

[edited by: Matthew1980 at 8:55 pm (utc) on Jun 25, 2010]

a-ha! so simple.

Thank you!