RE: [PHP] keyword searching

[snip]
I am selecting a field in a database called description for keyword
searching. The field contains names of people, states, years, etc.
When
someone searches for say "holmes north carolina" the query searches for
exactly that, fields which have "holmes north carolina", and not fields
that contaim holmes, north, and carolina. So I run a str_replace to
replace all spaces with *, which turns it into "holmes*north*carolina",
but say that north carolina is before holmes in the field, it won't
return
those fields (it only returns fields in which holmes is infront of north

carolina). So how can I have it return all fields which contain all
the words holmes, north, and carolina in any order, in that field?
[/snip]

You don't say which database you are using, but several allow for full
text searching of fields where the order is inconsequential. The
behaviour you describe is preceisely how most (if not all) databases
will return a search on a "standard" column type.

I'm using Informix SQL. Do you know how to do full text searching on
Informix? If so, please share the details :)

Jay Blanchard wrote:

> [snip]
> I am selecting a field in a database called description for keyword
> searching. The field contains names of people, states, years, etc.
> When
> someone searches for say "holmes north carolina" the query searches for
> exactly that, fields which have "holmes north carolina", and not fields
> that contaim holmes, north, and carolina. So I run a str_replace to
> replace all spaces with *, which turns it into "holmes*north*carolina",
> but say that north carolina is before holmes in the field, it won't
> return
> those fields (it only returns fields in which holmes is infront of north
>
> carolina). So how can I have it return all fields which contain all
> the words holmes, north, and carolina in any order, in that field?
> [/snip]
>
> You don't say which database you are using, but several allow for full
> text searching of fields where the order is inconsequential. The
> behaviour you describe is preceisely how most (if not all) databases
> will return a search on a "standard" column type.
>

From: "Adam Williams" <awilliam@mdah.state.ms.us>

> I'm using Informix SQL.

Could have saved some bandwidth by mentioning that in the first place and
only posting to either php-general or php-db (which is more appropriate),
not both. :)

Ignore what my other posts said, as I don't know how Informix works.

---John Holmes...