Newbie string question (php/mysql)

[jennatar]

Hiya. I'm new here, and new to php altogether. I'm just looking to make my pure HTML website more dynamic and easier to update, and picking up the basic php/mySQL to do that doesn't seem too bad. I'm here with my first (of undoubtedly many) hiccups:

 

This is a search of sorts. I need to see if a string ($var) is contained within a field in my database, and return only those database entries where it is. Is there a way to include this in the WHERE portion of the mysql_query?

 

ex:

$var = 'string'

$search = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table1

WHERE stripos(field1, $var) != FALSE ORDER BY title");

 

...I know that doesn't work, but that's what I'm going for: return a mysql query containing only those rows where field1 contains $var.

 

If it can't be done, is there a way to incorporate it into a mysql_fetch_array?

 

Like...

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($search) && stripos(row['field1'], $var) != FALSE)

 

...again, I know that doesn't work. Or is there a better way to do it than stripos? Any help on this would be appreciated, and thanks for putting up with my lack of knowing anything.

[trq]

$var = 'string'
$sql ="SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE field1 LIKE '%$var%'";

[jennatar]

...man, I feel pathetic. Thanks.

 

I think I need to find more lists of operators and things. Sorry about that.

[trq]

Remember that sql is not php. The mysql manual is a great resource.