search mysql text field on plain equivalents chars - mysql

Question

I need to search a text field on a database avoiding mismatch for special chars but for the same phrase.
For example, if my search term in DB field is saved as "I lòve mysql ánd query" I would like to match the search for "I love mysql ánd query","I love mysql and query","I löve mysql ánd query",etc.
I was thinking to convert the phrases with a PHP function that I use for url rewrites flattening them out always to "I love mysql and query" but I'm not sure I can flatten them out in the query?

Answer 1

Since your data is already written to the DB with accents, can you try using DB collation to map directly between accented characters:
$connection->query("SET NAMES utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci");
You can read more about it here
The page above explaints clearly what this collation will do for you:
mysql> SET NAMES 'utf8' COLLATE 'utf8_general_ci';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> CREATE TABLE t1
(c1 CHAR(1) CHARACTER SET UTF8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
mysql> INSERT INTO t1 VALUES ('a'),('A'),('À'),('á');
Query OK, 4 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 4 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
mysql> SELECT c1, HEX(c1), HEX(WEIGHT_STRING(c1)) FROM t1;
+------+---------+------------------------+
| c1 | HEX(c1) | HEX(WEIGHT_STRING(c1)) |
+------+---------+------------------------+
| a | 61 | 0041 |
| A | 41 | 0041 |
| À | C380 | 0041 |
| á | C3A1 | 0041 |
+------+---------+------------------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)
You can also test it for youself directly in the DB (test taken from here):
mysql> SET NAMES 'utf8' COLLATE 'utf8_general_ci';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> SELECT 'a' = 'A', 'a' = 'À', 'a' = 'á';
+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| 'a' = 'A' | 'a' = 'À' | 'a' = 'á' |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| 1 | 1 | 1 |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+
1 row in set (0.06 sec)