MySQL search multiple tables and in one table search multiple columns - mysql

Question

I built a query for searching one value across multiple tables. It works great as is, but I want to search multiple fields in the "customers" table ("last_name" and "company_name" additionally).
$sql = "SELECT first_name as name FROM customers WHERE first_name LIKE '%" . $keyword . "%'
UNION
SELECT name as name FROM events WHERE name LIKE '%" . $keyword . "%'
UNION
SELECT product_name as name FROM products WHERE product_name LIKE '%" . $keyword . "%'";
Do I just add more separate lines for each additional field like so?
"SELECT first_name as name FROM customers WHERE first_name LIKE '%" . $keyword . "%'
UNION
SELECT last_name as name FROM customers WHERE last_name LIKE '%" . $keyword . "%'
UNION
SELECT company_name as name FROM customers WHERE company_name LIKE '%" . $keyword . "%'
It doesn't seem the most efficient, so wanted to check. Thanks!

Answer 1

There is an efficient solution. Since you collect only name, you collect them into three different variable. and using backend language, you merge these 3 array.
example for php,
$sql1 = "SELECT first_name as name FROM customers WHERE first_name LIKE '%" . $keyword . "%';
//getting first array result by this query
$sql2 = "SELECT name as name FROM events WHERE name LIKE '%" . $keyword . "%'";
//getting second array result by this query
$sql3 = "SELECT product_name as name FROM products WHERE product_name LIKE '%" . $keyword . "%'";
//getting third array result by this query
$result = array_merge($sql1, $sql2, $sql3)
This solution will be applicable, if you can manage data by your backend language.