Searching Number Field To See If It Falls In A Range

Question

I'm building a property search form and searching by different types of fields in Craft.

Here are my questions:

1. How can I get a list of the unique cities in the entries section to declare my form options?

2. I'm stuck on searching by square feet. (see # sf # section in my code) My plan is to let the user select from a few different ranges of square footage. What I was trying to accomplish below is if my search parameter is "sf=1", the field buildingSQFT is searched for numbers in between 10000 and 20000. I would then set up different ranges based on the parameter.

I'm not sure if this is a good way to do this. Your input has to how to best accomplish this is appreciated.

{% if not craft.request.isAjax %}
{# set base params #}

{% set params = {
    section: 'propertiesSection',
    limit: null
} %}

{% set relatedParams = ['and'] %}

{# status #}
    {% if craft.request.getParam('status') %}
        {% set status = craft.categories.group('propertyStatus').slug(craft.request.getParam('status')) %}
        {% set relatedParams = relatedParams|merge([{ targetElement:status }]) %}
    {% endif %}


{# city #}
    {% set city = craft.request.getParam('city') %}
    {% if city %}
        {% set params = params|merge({'city':city}) %}
    {% endif %}

{# sf #}
    {% set sf = craft.request.getParam('sf') %}
    {% if sf == "1" %}
        {% set params = params|merge({'buildingSQFT':range(10000,20000)}) %}
    {% endif %}

    {# add relatedParams to params #}
    {% if relatedParams|length > 1 %}
        {% set params = params|merge({'relatedTo':relatedParams}) %}
    {% endif %}                

    {% set entries = craft.entries(params).search() %}

    {% if entries|length %}

Answer 1

Remember: all parameters in your Query are set to null by default. They won't be parsed into an SQL statement until they have a valid value (not "", not NULL not 0) so you can just pass null values.

{% set range = null %}
{% switch craft.request.getParam('sf') %}
    {% case '1' %}
        {% range = ['and', '>=10000', '<=20000'] %}
    {% case '2' %}
        {% range = ['and', '>=20000', '<=30000'] %}
{% endswitch %}

{% set query = craft.entries
    .city(craft.request.getParam('city')) // <-- if city is null, nothing happens
    .buildingSQFT(range)
    .section('propertiesSection')
%}

Keep in mind query is currently only a Query and not an array of entries. You can still attach your parameters

{% if craft.request.getParam('status') %}
    {% set status = craft.categories.group('propertyStatus').slug(craft.request.getParam('status').one()) %}

    {% do query.relatedTo(['and', {targetElement: status.id}]) %}
{% endif %}


{% set entries = query.all() %}

Answer 2

Try using

{% set params = params|merge({'buildingSQFT': '>= 10000 and <= 20000'}) %}