[sql] How to search multiple columns in MySQL?

I'm trying to make a search feature that will search multiple columns to find a keyword based match. This query:

SELECT title FROM pages LIKE %$query%;

works only for searching one column, I noticed separating column names with commas results in an error. So is it possible to search multiple columns in mysql?

Here is a query which you can use to search for anything in from your database as a search result ,

SELECT * FROM tbl_customer 
    WHERE CustomerName LIKE '%".$search."%'
    OR Address LIKE '%".$search."%' 
    OR City LIKE '%".$search."%' 
    OR PostalCode LIKE '%".$search."%' 
    OR Country LIKE '%".$search."%'

Using this code will help you search in for multiple columns easily

SELECT * FROM persons WHERE (`LastName` LIKE 'r%') OR (`FirstName` LIKE 'a%');

Please try with above query.

If your table is MyISAM:

SELECT  *
FROM    pages
WHERE   MATCH(title, content) AGAINST ('keyword' IN BOOLEAN MODE)

This will be much faster if you create a FULLTEXT index on your columns:

CREATE FULLTEXT INDEX fx_pages_title_content ON pages (title, content)

, but will work even without the index.

1)

select *
from employee em
where CONCAT(em.firstname, ' ', em.lastname) like '%parth pa%';

2)

select *
from employee em
where CONCAT_ws('-', em.firstname, em.lastname) like '%parth-pa%';

First is usefull when we have data like : 'firstname lastname'.

e.g

• parth patel
• parth p
• patel parth

Second is usefull when we have data like : 'firstname-lastname'. In it you can also use special characters.

e.g

• parth-patel
• parth_p
• patel#parth

If it is just for searching then you may be able to use CONCATENATE_WS. This would allow wild card searching. There may be performance issues depending on the size of the table.

SELECT * 
FROM pages 
WHERE CONCAT_WS('', column1, column2, column3) LIKE '%keyword%'