WordPress Custom Query for Search Page

A code snippet about how to customize default search query in wordpress

		<?php
			// code to preserve default search query
			global $query_string;

			$query_args = explode("&", $query_string);
			$search_query = array();

			foreach($query_args as $key => $string) {
				$query_split = explode("=", $string);
				$search_query[$query_split[0]] = $query_split[1];
			}

			// adding custom query parameters to search query array
			$search_query['posts_per_page'] = '3';
			$search_query['paged'] = $paged;

			$search = new WP_Query($search_query);

			if ( $search->have_posts() ): while ( $search->have_posts() ) : $search->the_post();
		?>