Those pages help. I didn't realize the ?: were together. Thanks.

Thanks for the other link. That will help too.

So, since all of your help I have changed to code to the following and it
doesn't seem to be setting the variable $_GET['search'] because when I submit
it I am taken back to a page that has a blank form with the echo that the var
has not been sent.

**************************PHP CODE********************************

$self = $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];
if (!isset($_GET['search']))
{
echo 'The variable search is not set';
echo '<form action="'.$self.'" method="GET">';
echo '<label>Search: <input type="text name="search" /></label>';
echo '<input type="submit" value="Find It Now!!!!" />';
echo '</form>';
}
else
{
echo ' The variable search is set ';
}

***********************END OF PHP CODE****************************