full text search and wildcards

[jadeddog]

so i have a full text search in my database, and it works fine

the problem i have is that my database is broken up into different sections, based upon a certain column criteria ("housing", "transportation", etc)... i can seach within each of the different sections by selecting the corresponding section from a dropdown menu

some of my sections are rather small, and i could see users wanting to view every record in the section.... now if i wasnt using full text search, i could use the % character, but with full text i cant.... also there is the default setting in full text that doesnt allow searches that return more than 50% of the database records (although im not completely sure of the actual percentage)

what i want to know is if there is a character that works like the % character for full text searches? thanks a bunch

[jadeddog]

any help on this one?

[kburger]

I don't think what you're trying to do is possible with a fulltext search. One workaround might be to have another text field that does a 'LIKE' search, and let the user choose which one to use. Or even have a radio button to determine the kind of search to use.

Just a thought.

[jadeddog]

hey i got an idea.... i could just take the search term that the person enters and check it, and then if its a certain character say * or %, i then just run a like search instead of my full text search..... that sounds like it would work to me

[kburger]

Sounds like it would. Don't know why I didn't see the simple answer staring me in the face.