PHP, and X^Y searches.

Say, I have this X number of types of articles. From this articles, I search for an specific type, then, from these items, I have to search by brand, from this, I go color, and then by size.

This, of course, is a horror. PHP goes down with a whimper, not to mention that it is a terrible thing to do no matter the platform. What do you suggest me I should do? I asked my superiors if I could do some DB fixing, but they told me they cannot change the DB anytime soon.

Help?

>>1
What's wrong with doing select * from table where type = 1 and brand = 'xyz' and color = 'red' and size = 'L', and putting indexes on all those columns in your where clause? Elaborate.