PHP MySQL Adjusting Query with QueryString

Apologies for the newbie question.

My website has a form.

<form action='' method='get'>
<select id="cSelector" name="cSelector">
    <option value=""></option>
    <option value="">Show All Items</option>
    <option value="Compensation">Compensation</option>
</select>
  <input type="submit" value="Submit">  

</form>
Copy code

My querystring, created on form submission, looks like this:

http://website.com/table_example.php?cSelector=Compensation
Copy code

My query looks like this:

$stmt = $conn->prepare("
SELECT t1.CategoryID,t1.SubCategoryName, t1.CategoryName, t1.SubCategoryID, t2.ItemText from
    (SELECT Category.CategoryID,CategoryName, SubCategoryName, SubCategoryID
    FROM Category
    JOIN SubCategory
    ON Category.CategoryID = SubCategory.CategoryID) t1
RIGHT JOIN  
    (SELECT SubCategoryID, ItemText FROM Item) t2
ON (t1.SubCategoryID = t2.SubCategoryID)
WHERE 1 ".$searchQuery." AND CategoryName = ".$search2." ORDER BY ".$columnName." ".$columnSortOrder." LIMIT :limit,:offset");
Copy code

The intended result produces a table queried by CategoryName.

My question. Why does this properly execute?

$search2='Compensation';
Copy code

And this does not?

$search2 = "'".$_GET['cSelector']."'";
Copy code

Any help would be very much appreciated. And thank you!

Didn't find the answer?

Our community is visited by hundreds of web development professionals every day. Ask your question and get a quick answer for free.