regular expression in a query?

[jeff5656]

Could someone please help me with the code that will select records only if there are certain keywords in two of the fields?

 

for instance:

$query = "select * from table_a where (column_a REGEXP 'apple' OR 'kiwi') 
OR (column_b REGEXP 'apple' OR 'kiwi) WHERE status = 'active' ";

So if the record contains apple or kiwi anywhere in column_a OR column_b, then select that record.

I know you have to use regexp because the contents of column_a is a big text with a few sentences or paragraphs of text, and I only want to select the record if it contains those two words (and same for column_b).

 

 

[Maq]

Not sure what's more expensive LIKE or REGEXP but I would assume REGEXP.  Why can't you use LIKE for each column?  Also, I don't think you need to separate your logic with parentheses if all your logical operators are ORs.