How-to search custom table

Hello,

I would like a user to able to search a small MySQL table that stores data completely unrelated to wordpress. My plan was to create a MySQL user that only has read access to the one table and deny everything else. Then I was going to create a php script that will return & format the query results. Upon looking at the wp_users table I noticed only one user was present. I assumed there would be at least one other user for anonymous read-only access.

I’m new to wordpress but not to webservers, php, or MySQL but no read-only account this has me thinking my approach to implementing a database search in wordpress is fundamentally flawed. Rather than going about it the hard way I thought I would see what people recommend. I know it’s probably something simple, but searching didnt turn up any relevant results.

Any recommendations would be much appreciated! Thanks!