MySql database query (exact match from a list)

Question

I've got a list of keywords entered into a database field
called
'tour_keywords' like:
europe, austria, lakes, mountains, tyrol, alpine etc
What I want is for results to be return IF ONLY an exact
match is found
in the database. The way I have it at the moment (see mySql
query below)
I only need to type 'tain' or 'kes' and I get results for
'moun'tain's'
OR 'la'kes'' :(
Can I stop this and match only the keywords as specified in
the database
field.
This is the DB query I have:
$query_rsResultsList = sprintf("SELECT * FROM tours WHERE
tour_keywords
LIKE '%%%s%%' ", $colname_rsResultsList);
Thanks
Os.

Answer 1

Michael Fesser wrote:
> .oO(Osgood)
>
>
>>I've got a list of keywords entered into a database
field called
>>'tour_keywords' like:
>>
>>europe, austria, lakes, mountains, tyrol, alpine etc
>
>
> Uh ...
>>What I want is for results to be return IF ONLY an
exact match is found
>>in the database. The way I have it at the moment (see
mySql query below)
>>I only need to type 'tain' or 'kes' and I get results
for 'moun'tain's'
>>OR 'la'kes'' :(
>
>
> What about a different table design?
Yeah nice thought. I only have a little to no knowledge of
working with
one table, let alone two or three.
Your current approach is not only
> bad in terms of normalization, it's also very
inefficient, since the DB
> can't use any indexes when performing a search. Full
table scans are
> expensive.
Humm why can't mySql just search a field containing multiple
words for a
particular matching word with a simple query.....maybe that's
what's
inefficient. Granted, I'm totally inefficient as well
(unfortunately I
was born that way) but two inefficients dont make an
efficient ;)
> Since this is a typical m:n relation (many to many), I
would use three
> tables: one for the main tour data, one for the keywords
and a third one
> to connect these:
>
> tours
> -----
> tourId INT UNSIGNED
> ...
> PRIMARY KEY (tourId)
>
> keywords
> --------
> keywordId INT UNSIGNED
> keyword CHAR(20)
> PRINARY KEY (keywordId)
>
> tourKeywords
> ------------
> tourId INT UNSIGNED (FOREIGN KEY on tours.tourId)
> keywordId INT UNSIGNED (FOREIGN KEY on
keywords.keywordId)
> PRIMARY KEY (tourId, keywordId)
>
> This makes it very easy to insert new keywords and to
assign as many
> keywords as necessary to a particular tour. In addition
searching for
> all tours matching one or even multiple(!) keywords is
very efficient.
> Try that with your current design.
Here's wishing lol.
>>Can I stop this and match only the keywords as
specified in the database
>>field.
>>
>>This is the DB query I have:
>>
>>$query_rsResultsList = sprintf("SELECT * FROM tours
WHERE tour_keywords
>>LIKE '%%%s%%' ", $colname_rsResultsList);
>
>
> In the example above the search query would look like
>
> SELECT ...
> FROM tours t
> INNER JOIN tourKeywords USING(tourId)
> INNER JOIN keywords USING(keywordId)
> WHERE keyword = 'mountains'
>
> or for multiple keywords:
>
> ...
> WHERE keyword IN ('mountains', 'lakes')
> GROUP BY t.tourId
Damn.... stop messing with my head.
I'm sure youre 100% correct but I'm a long way off the pace
when it
comes to database structure.