MySQL Contains

[Garethp]

Well, I'm creating a website and I want to search a for a field that contains a certain string of characters. I have tried the following

 

$Look = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table WHERE column LIKE '$Search'");

 

and

 

$Look = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table WHERE CONTAINS (column, '$Search')");

 

but when I try to run it through

 

if(!mysql_num_rows($Look))

 

It either comes out as no results or not a valid resource. Can I get some help please?

[Adam]

try adding %s:

 

$Look = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table WHERE column LIKE '%{$Search}%'");

[Garethp]

Thanks, works like a charm. Just wandering, what does the %{}% do? What does it change?

[Adam]

It searches the field for the matching string with 'any number of characters in the pattern' (at each side of it) .. Basically just a wildcard character..

 

Adam

[luca200]

Just to point out: the wildcard characters are '%'.

Curly braces are just containers for your variable ($Search) inside the string. You could avoid them and get the same result (in this case)