Newbie Q - controller/view code for mixed query

[eluser]jmadsen[/eluser]
@osci - When I said "you", I meant "you, the reader", no you personally. This isn't any sort of attack on anyone - apologies if it came across that way.

AR simply runs a series of functions to concatenate a bunch of strings. It is slower (by how much, I don't know - probably minimal), lacks important things you need to write serious queries, and sometimes (such as or_where() ) is misleading in what functions do and can lead to serious mistakes in conditions - which you won't even notice because you can't see the sql you are producing unless you intentionally look for it. Furthermore, it fills up this forum with "how do I force this bit of sql into these functions?"- type questions

It is also rumored to kick puppies.

The query I wrote was not advanced. Matter of fact, it's something I used to teach to beginner sql students as part of a database night school class. IMHO, anyone who looked at that query above and thought it was complicated or advanced should go out on the internet and study sql some more.