Partial and whole word searches in MySQL

[Anon]

Can anyone give me an idea of how I can set up a PHP/MySQL search tool to allow partial and/or whole word searches?

For example, a partial word search for data containing the word "male" would return data like "male", "female", "malevolent", etc.

But, a whole word search would return only data containing the word "male".

Help!

Thanks,
Matt

[Anon]

For example, a partial word search for data >containing the word "male" would return >data like "male", "female", "malevolent", >etc.

in Mysql do something like

Select thingy from whatsit where thingy like '%$myword%';

would return male/femail/malevolent

(if you want a start or end match then simply remove one of the %'s)

To do a perfect match simply remove the wildcard or use "where thingy like '$myword';

(I cant remember if = matches are case sensitive in mySQL.

[Anon]

if of course meant female, not femail !

Doh !