Need help refining a Query

[webguync]

I am working on  Query application which returns results from a MySQL DB. The database consist of players from various sports teams, and list their name, city, sport, etc.

 

The issue is if you type in a search terms from one of the fields any result will return and I only want unique results. For instance if you type in 'New York Giants', you will get a return of all the New York teams, even though I have city and team name in two different columns.  The Query is matching 'New York and returning all results with that in the Query. Anyway here is my SQL code.

 

SELECT sport,first_name,last_name,MVP,city,Picture,team
FROM players 
WHERE MATCH(sport,first_name,last_name,MVP,city,team,Picture)
AGAINST('$query' IN BOOLEAN MODE)");

[fenway]

What did you expect? You have a FULLTEXT index on multiple columns.  You're asking MySQL to decide which words matter.  Of course, you could have searched the "phrase".

[webguync]

can you provide an example of the SQL for searching a Phrase?

[fenway]

The mysql refman has all of the syntax for MATCH... AGAINST()... but it should just be quoted.