query where unkown number of chars in between known

[SeenGee]

i am building a basic search facility, if the first query fails i am then querying the db again, in this i want to use the first and last letters from the search and then allow for an unspecified number of chars in between. I am retrieving these vars using this php:

		$i =  (strlen($keysearchstr) - 1);
		$newString = $keysearchstr;
		$str1 = $newString{0};
		$str2 = $newString{$i};

i can concatenate $str1 and $str2, what does the syntax of my SQL be to search for a word using $str1 and $str2 with any number of chars inbetween?

[Sxooter]

select * from table where field like '$c1%$c2'

If you want to search with other things before and after:

select * from table where field like '%$c1%$c2%'