Write sql query to search using wildcard - mysql

I have a database that the user needs to search using wildcards. For example, the column Order number the user would need search by tickets starting with 3011* or 201*. Since the ticket number has many different numbers it would need to be build by parameter. I know I have to use LIKE and I know how to write the query with LIKE if the search would start with the same number all the time, but I do not know how to write it using a parameter for user input.
For example:
ITEM ORDER_NO
Chair Order 3011134
Table Order A230445
Tile Order 1032234
So when the user inputs a search for orders starting with *3011 the Chair order would pop up.
I know how to search for exact match but not for wildcards
I have done some research on this, but nothing on using a parameter. Any help or guidance will be appreciated.

Have a look at the following : SQL Wildcards
Usually in SQL you will do things like :
declare #Search varchar(20);
set #Search = '3011';
select *
from TableName
where FieldName like '%' + #Search + '%';
This allows you to search for things staring with, ending with and having the search text in the middle of the field you are looking at.
Just be careful for SQL Injections.(Alwasy validate user inputs.)

SELECT item, order_no
FROM 'your table'
WHERE order_no
LIKE '3011%'
The % wildcard symbol with LIKE will return all rows where the order_no starts with 3011 - so from your table the above query would return Chair Order - 3011134

Related

Using a MySQL Select with a RegEx Expression embedded within a String

I am using PHP to access a mysql database field that contains up to 2500 characters per record.
I want to build queries that will return only the records that include a single word, like 'taco'.
Sometimes, however, the user will need to search for a word like 'jalapeno'. Except that jalapeno may exist in the database as 'jalapeno' or as 'jalapeño'. The query should return both instances.
As a further complication, the user may also need to search for a word like 'creme', which may appear as 'creme' or 'créme', but never as 'crémé'.
It seems like I should be able to construct something that uses a replace, and then a Regular Expression, so that the letter 'n' is always replaced with '[n|ñ]', and then search for a string with an embedded Regular Expression like this: 'jalape[n|ñ]o'. Except that does not work. MySQL treats the RegEx syntax as literals.
None of the following return the results that I am looking for:
SELECT id, record FROM table WHERE record like '%jalapeno%';
SELECT id, record FROM table WHERE record REGEXP 'jalapeno';
SELECT id, record FROM table WHERE record REGEXP 'jalape[n|ñ]o';
SELECT id, record FROM table WHERE REGEXP_LIKE(record, 'jalape[n|ñ]o', 'im');
Additionally, I can use PHP to do a replacement of the potential characters, but I end up with stuff like this:
SELECT id, record FROM table WHERE (record like '%creme%' || record like '%crémé%');
I would be Ok with a search like this, but it seems overly complicated to construct programmatically:
SELECT id, record FROM table WHERE (record like '%creme%' || record like '%crémé%' || record like '%cremé%' || record like '%cremé%' );
Is there a MySQL method that provides a REGEX 'OR' to be embedded within a String?
Maybe something like this:
SELECT id, record FROM table WHERE record like '%cr[e|é]m[e|é]%' ;
Or is there another solution that would not require the construction of an excessively convoluted SQL Statement?
Thanks for anyone who spent time trying to figure this out.
As I commented above, REGEXP_LIKE() does not appear to be a valid MySQL function for the current release.
Here is my solution; Note that this works for MySQL 5.7.x.
SELECT id, record FROM table WHERE record RLIKE 'jalape(n|ñ)o';

Show Fields but with content

i'm trying to show fields names on a combobox, but I need only those that are not null or have blank spaces.
I all ready have the field names with this query:
SHOW FIELDS FROM model WHERE type LIKE 'varchar(15)'
Any idea about how can i do this?
Update:
I'm working with an old database who is poorly designed. I attached an image:Database Screenshot This is a tire sizes database, so i need to get the years by model who has the size captured to show them in a combo box.
You can use your current query to get the "candidate" fields, but (short of some very complicated dynamic sql) you'll need to build a separate query to determine which candidates are pertinent. Generically, something like:
SELECT SUM(IF(field1 REGEXP '[a-zA-Z0-9.]+', 1, 0) > 0 AS showField1
, SUM(IF(field2 REGEXP '[a-zA-Z0-9.]+', 1, 0) > 0 AS showField2
, ...
FROM theTable
;
Depending on what you consider "has values" the regexp string may need adjusted; learn more here: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/regexp.html
If the table is huge (large number of rows), you may be better off querying on each field separately like this (the one above will be looking at the whole table without some sort of WHERE to reduce the rows examined):
SELECT 1 FROM theTable WHERE fieldX REGEXP '[a-zA-Z0-9.]+' LIMIT 1;
Treating having a query result as "yes" and no result as "no content".

MySQL search within the last 5 characters in a column?

My user table has a column "name" which contains information like this:
Joe Lee
Angela White
I want to search for either first name or last name efficiently. First name is easy, I can do
SELECT * FROM user WHERE name LIKE "ABC%"
But for last name, if I do
SELECT * FROM user WHERE name LIKE "%ABC"
That would be extremely slow.
So I am thinking about counting the characters of the input, for example, "ABC" has 3 characters, and if I can search only the last three characters in name column, that would be great. So I want something like
SELECT * FROM user WHERE substring(name, end-3, end) LIKE "ABC%"
Is there anything in MySQL that can do this?
Thanks so much!
PS. I cannot do fulltext because our search engine doesn't support that.
The reason that
WHERE name LIKE '%ith'
is a slow way to look for 'John Smith' by last name is the same reason that
WHERE Right(name, InStr(name, ' ' )) LIKE 'smi%'
or any other expression on the column is slow. It defeats the use of the index for quick lookup and leaves the MySQL server doing a full table scan or full index scan.
If you were using Oracle (that is, if you worked for a formerly wealthy employer) you could use function indexes. As it is you have to add some extra columns or some other helping data to accelerate your search.
Your smartest move is to split your first and last names into separate columns. Several other people have pointed out good reasons for doing that.
If you can't do that you could try creating an extra column which contains the name string reversed, and create an index on that column. That column will have, for example, 'John Smith' stored as 'htimS nhoJ'. Then you can search as follows.
WHERE nameReversed LIKE CONCAT(REVERSE('ith'),'%')
This search will use the index and be decently fast. I've had good success with it.
You're close. In MySQL you should be able to use InStr(str, substr) and Right(str, index) to do the following:
SELECT * FROM user WHERE Right(name, InStr(name, " ")) LIKE "ABC%"
InStr(name, " ") returns the index of the Space character (you may have to play with the " " syntax). This index is then used in the Right() function to search for only the last name (basically; problems arise when you have multiple names, multiple spaces etc). LIKE "ABC%" would then search for a last name starting with ABC.
You cannot use a fixed index as names that are more than 3 or less than 3 characters long would not return properly as you suggest.
However, as Zane said, it's a much better practise to use seperate fields.
If it is a MyIsam table, you may use Free text search to do the same.
You can use the REGEXP operator:
SELECT * FROM user WHERE name REGEXP "ABC$"
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/regexp.html

MySQL UNION query correct handling for 3 or more words

I've to ask your help to solve this problem.
My website has a search field, let's say user writes in "Korg X 50"
In my database in table "products" i have a filed "name" that holds "X50" and a field "brand" that hold "Korg". Is there a way to use the UNION option to get the correct record ?
And if the user enters "Korg X-50" ?
Thank you very much !
Matteo
May be you should use full-text search
SELECT brand, name, MATCH (brand,name) AGAINST ('Korg X 50') AS score
FROM products WHERE MATCH (brand,name) AGAINST ('Korg X 50')
As far as I understand you don't need UNION but something like
SELECT * FROM table1
WHERE CONCAT(field1, field2) LIKE '%your_string%'
On client side you get rid of all characters (like space, hyphen, etc) in your_string that appears in user input and cannot be in field1 or field2.
So, user input Korg X 50 as well as Korg X-50 becomes KorgX50.
you will need to get some form of searchable text.
either parse out the input for multiple key words and match each separately, or perhaps try to append them all together and match to the columns appended in the same way.
you will also need either a regex, or maybe a simpler search and replace to get rid of spaces and dashes after the append before the comparison.
in general, allowing users to search for open ended text strings is more complicated than 'what union do i use'... you will ideally also be worried about slight misspellings and capitalization, and keyword order.
you may consider pulling all keywords out from your normal record into a separate keyword list associated with each product, then use that list to perform your searches.
If you do not want to parse user input and use as it is, then you will need to use a query like this
select * from products where concat_ws(' ',brand,name) = user_input -- or
select * from products where concat_ws(' ',brand,name) like %user_input%
However, this query won't return result if user enters name "Korg X-50" and your table contains "Korg" and "X50", then you need to do some other thing to achive this. You may look at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/string-functions.html#function_soundex however it won't be a complete solution. Look for text indexing libraries for that ex: lucene

Use REGEXP in MySQL to match keywords for search engine in random order

I'm trying to use a regular expression to match a user entered search string to a title of an entry in my MySQL database.
For example I have the following rows in a table in my databse:
id title
1 IM2 - Article 3 Funky Business
2 IM2 - Article 4 There's no Business That's not Show Business
3 IM2 - There's no Business That's not Show Business
4 CO4 - Life's a business
When a user searches for "IM Article Business", the following query will be executed (spaces are replaced by "(.*)" using str_replace):
SELECT * FROM mytable WHERE title REGEXP 'IM(.*)Article(.*)Business'
This will return the first 2 rows.
Now, I want it to show the same results when a user uses the same words, but in another order, for example: "Business IM Article". The results MUST contain all words entered, only the order of how the words are entered shouldn't matter.
I couldn't figure out how to do it in any way and hoped regular expressions would be the answer. I've never used them before, so does anybody know how to do this?
Thanks,
Pascal
This isn't something regular expressions are great at. Fortunately, it's something SQL is pretty good at. (I'm going to not use mysql's regexp keyword, which I didn't even knew existed, and instead use the SQL standard "%" glob matching.)
select * from mytable where title like '%IM%' and title like '%Article%' and title like '%Business%'
Now title has to contain all three strings, but you haven't specified an order. Exactly what you want.