改进我的sql查询，以便在表的所有列中搜索文本

Question

I have to implement the feature where in user inputs some text in the search field and I need to query and pull out the items related to that text from the table.In the table I have close to 8 columns which are user facing and 4 columns which are auto inserted whenever insert happens via front end.

Below is query I wrote and it works in via mysql client,

select SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS * 
from `database`.`ttable` 
WHERE testdatetime BETWEEN '2012/05/01' and '2012/09/27' 
and testimg IS NOT NULL 
and testtitle LIKE 't%' 
OR testname LIKE 't%' 
OR testaddr LIKE 't%'  
OR testph LIKE 't%' 
OR testoffs LIKE't%' 
OR testmaps LIKE 't%' 
OR testimg LIKE 't%' 
OR testdatetime LIKE 't%'  
order  by testdatetime desc;

Now for some reason this query looks bit odd to me as I am checking each column for that value, and wanted to check if this is right way to implement it or mysql has some built it features which yields better results than this query.Appreciate if someone can point me to right direction.Since I am yet to implement this feature,I dont know how it performs in terms of performance,but I know Like clauses are bit intensive in operations.

Answer 1

You might be better off using full text search for your string searches rather than like statements. That way you can also find variants of the search terms. Here's a link on full-text searches for MySQL http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/fulltext-search.html

Answer 2

MySQL has a built in feature to do what you want. It's called a full text index. It will be way more efficient than a bunch of like statements. Here's something to get you started.

http://www.databasejournal.com/sqletc/article.php/1578331/Using-Fulltext-Indexes-in-MySQL---Part-1.htm