title: How to filter by multiple fields in MySQL/PHP
body: <p>I'm writing a filter/sorting feature for an application right now that will have text fields above each column.  As the user types in each field, requests will be sent to the back-end for sorting.  Since there are going to be around 6 text fields, I was wondering if there's a better way to sort instead of using if statements to check for each variable, and writing specific queries if say all fields were entered, just one, or just two fields, etc.</p>
  
  <p>Seems like there would be a lot of if statements.  Is there a more intuitive way of accomplishing this?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks!</p>