Title: Passing variable from searchform.php to search.php
Last modified: August 18, 2016

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# Passing variable from searchform.php to search.php

 *  Resolved [ThaiClimate](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thaiclimate/)
 * (@thaiclimate)
 * [18 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/passing-variable-from-searchphp-to-searchformphp/)
 * I’m using (trying to use) the search.php to choose one of two templates (English
   or Thai) for returning results depending on where the search function was executed—
   from the English side where everything is displayed from one parent category 
   or from the Thai side with a different parent category. My search.php can easily
   parse the parent category and display using the appropriate language template
   when it has a result, but when “no result” , I need another way for the search.
   php to know which language template to choose.
 * **Question 1:** Is it possible to set/use a variable in the searchform.php that
   can still be accessed from the search.php after the search has been performed?
 * Also, when “no result” occurs wp displays “Sorry, no posts matched your criteria”.
   I can’t find where I can edit or set any kind of condition for this default message.
 * **Question 2**: Should I be inserting a conditional statement in my search.php
   file that selects my own “no result” message (as opposed to this default “no 
   result” message) to display when finding no results? If so, could someone provide
   me with the relevant code for testing for “no results found” from the search 
   function?
 * I’ve read in the codex and the forums about setting up search pages, etc., but
   these two issues do not seem to be addressed.
 * Thank you!

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  Thread Starter [ThaiClimate](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thaiclimate/)
 * (@thaiclimate)
 * [18 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/passing-variable-from-searchphp-to-searchformphp/#post-612381)
 * Still wondering how I might be able to set a simple variable, say English or 
   Thai, to help when using template selection between pages/posts/searches, etc.
 * As to question 2, am now using: <?php if (have_posts()) {?> … to generate my 
   own bilingual text and a back button as a sort of an error page. Not pretty, 
   but will hold until I can figure out an answer to Question 1.
 * Also for those who may be looking for back-button code, which took me awhile 
   to locate, I used [Back](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/passing-variable-from-searchphp-to-searchformphp/history.back();?output_format=md)
 *  Thread Starter [ThaiClimate](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thaiclimate/)
 * (@thaiclimate)
 * [18 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/passing-variable-from-searchphp-to-searchformphp/#post-612476)
 * I’ve resolved the problem of setting and passing variables within the search 
   process. May not be the best way, but it seems to work for me.
 * I’ve used a HIDDEN form variable “lang” to append as an extra variable to the“
   s” variable passed within the url by the searchform.php to the seach.php.
 * Actually, I’ve set-up two searchforms, searchformthai.php and searchformeng.php
   depending on what language template the user is starting the search from. In 
   each of the sarchforms, after the line
    <input type=”text” value=”<?php echo 
   wp_specialchars($s, 1); ?>” name=”s” id=”s” />
 * I’ve added this for searchformthai.php:
    <input type=”hidden” name=”lang” value
   =”thai”/>
 * I’ve added this for searchformeng.php:
    <input type=”hidden” name=”lang” value
   =”eng”/>
 * This causes the url passed from the searchform.php to search.php to now contain
   two variables “s” and “lang” and looks like:
    [http://mysite/index.php?s=searchstring&lang=thai](http://mysite/index.php?s=searchstring&lang=thai)
   or [http://myrsite/index.php?s=searchstring&lang=eng](http://myrsite/index.php?s=searchstring&lang=eng)
 * Then in the search.php I’ve retrieved the “lang” variable and used it as a condition
   in an IF statement to determine which templates, Thai or English, should be used
   to display along with the results.
 * At the top of the search.php file I’ve added:
 * <?php $lang = $_GET[“lang”];?>
 * <?php if ($lang == “eng”) { ?>
    …use English templates… … <?php }else{ ?> …use
   Thai templates … <?php } ?>

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

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## Tags

 * [bilingual](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/bilingual/)
 * [search.php](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/search-php/)
 * [variables](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/variables/)

 * 2 replies
 * 1 participant
 * Last reply from: [ThaiClimate](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thaiclimate/)
 * Last activity: [18 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/passing-variable-from-searchphp-to-searchformphp/#post-612476)
 * Status: resolved

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