Adding ELSE argument to AJAX Live Search for "No results found"

Question

Having finally being able to make an AJAX driven live search functional, I need help understanding how to add an else argument function so that when there are no posts matching the search query, the search box will display "No results found" or whatever text I choose.

This is the code I have whereof the else argument before the endif crashes the site.

add_action('wp_ajax_data_fetch' , 'data_fetch');
add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_data_fetch', 'data_fetch');
function data_fetch() {

    $post_search_query = new WP_Query(array('posts_per_page' => -1, 's' => esc_attr($_POST['search_keyword']), 'post_type' => 'post'));

        if ($post_search_query->have_posts()) :

            while ($post_search_query->have_posts()): $post_search_query->the_post(); ?>

        <h5><a href="<?php echo esc_url( post_permalink() ); ?>"><?php the_title();?></a></h5>
        <span class="live-search-post-excerpt"><?php the_excerpt(); ?></span>

    <?php endwhile;

        wp_reset_postdata();

            else {
            
                echo 'No results found';
        }
    endif;

die();

}

Answer 1

Try to not using endif and endwhile, just use curly brakets {} to determinate ifs body or add :after elseelse:`

Your problem is that you mix two syntaxes.

Read this to fully understand how to write alternative syntax https://www.php.net/manual/en/control-structures.alternative-syntax.php

    add_action('wp_ajax_data_fetch' , 'data_fetch');
    add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_data_fetch', 'data_fetch');
    function data_fetch() {
    
        $post_search_query = new WP_Query(array('posts_per_page' => -1, 's' => esc_attr($_POST['search_keyword']), 'post_type' => 'post'));
    
            if ($post_search_query->have_posts()){
    
                while ($post_search_query->have_posts()){  $post_search_query->the_post(); ?>
    
            <h5><a href="<?php echo esc_url( post_permalink() ); ?>"><?php the_title();?></a></h5>
            <span class="live-search-post-excerpt"><?php the_excerpt(); ?></span>
    
        <?php } //end while
wp_reset_postdata();
} //end if
    
         
    
                else {
                
                    echo 'No results found';
            } // end else
        
    
    die();
    
    }