FULLTEXT Search Multiple Columns in MySQL?

Question

So I've been struggling with this for the last couple days.. I have music genres. Separated by primary and secondary columns. Rock / Progressive rock, etc. And i have it so it'll search one column, just fine. But i'd like it to search either column. searching for help on google. I found that a FULLTEXT search in theory should do this. I setup the FULLTEXT index on both the Primary and secondary columns.. But I haven't been able to get it working.

this is my code that works for the single column:

    $query = sprintf("SELECT * FROM musicgenres WHERE secondary LIKE '%%%s%%' LIMIT 20", mysql_real_escape_string($_GET["q"]));

$arr = array();
$rs = mysql_query($query);

while($obj = mysql_fetch_object($rs)) {
    $arr[] = $obj;
}

$json_response = json_encode($arr);

if($_GET["callback"]) {
    $json_response = $_GET["callback"] . "(" . $json_response . ")";
}


$final = str_replace(genre_id, id, $json_response);
echo $final;

---

(It returns the results in a JSON format)

I've tried to follow this tutorial i've found that gives this as an example:

 $term = "Search Term";

    $sql = "SELECT *, MATCH(title, content) AGAINST('". $term ."') as score FROM pages WHERE MATCH (title, content) AGAINST('". $term ."') ORDER BY score DESC";
    $query = mysql_query($sql);

---

the question seems to be either in the SELECT query. or when i do combine it. it causes an error with this line:

while($obj = mysql_fetch_object($rs)) {

the most recent Select query i tried was:

$term = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET["q"]);

$sql = "SELECT *, MATCH(primary, secondary) AGAINST('". $term ."') as score FROM musicgenres WHERE MATCH (primary, secondary) AGAINST('". $term ."') ORDER BY score DESC";

I've also tried with: LIKE '%%%s%%' (which would be more useful. as partial matches would be nice)

Answer 1

I'm not 100% sure what you are looking for but if you want to search multiple columns something like this should work:

"SELECT * FROM musicgenres WHERE secondary LIKE '%%%s%%' OR primary LIKE '%%%s%%' LIMIT 20"

Hope that's close to what you are looking for.

Answer 2

Maybe you want to add indexes that enclose the columns you want to search:

ALTER TABLE `table` 
ADD FULLTEXT `fulltext_idxAll` (`column1`, `column2`,`column3`);

SELECT * FROM `table` 
WHERE MATCH (`column1`, `column2`,`column3`) 
AGAINST ('whateveryouwanttosearch')

hope this is useful for you.

Answer 3

Ok try this query

SELECT column1, column2, ..., MATCH(primary, secondary) AGAINST('". $term ."') as score 
FROM musicgenres 
WHERE MATCH (primary, secondary) AGAINST('". $term ."') 
ORDER BY score DESC"

If it dosent work try to remove match() against() from select clause

SELECT column1, column2, ... FROM ....