How do I do a multiple keyword search?

Anon

I am trying to write a search that allows the user to use multiple keywords in their search. Thus allowing them to type something like the following in a "Keyword(s)" input field:

Keyword(s): +Spain +summer +"outdoor education"

The user would then click "Search"

Next the search is processed and the results are displayed.

As far as processing the search, these are the steps I think I must make:
1. parse the words into an array

Anon

oops, I hit submit accidently!

Ok, anyway, the steps are:

Parse the keywords into an array
so that $word[1] = "Spain",
$word[2] = "summer",
and $word[3]= "outdoor education"
This is were I get confused! What do I do next? Should I do a loop and do a seperate search for each word? or is there a way to do one query?

I am worried that if I do a loop, that it will slow down the load time. But then I really have no idea how long a query takes.

Thank you for your help,

Peter

Anon

You should be more worried about the time the query will take than how long the loop will take. You want your final query to look like:

select * from mytable where word like '%Spain%' OR word like '%summer%' or word like '%outdoor education%';

Anon

Probably work a bit better with a regular expression like:

select from mytable where word ~ 'Spain' OR word ~ 'summer' or word ~ 'outdoor education';

This will solve the following:

1) case sensitivity issues (this is not case sensitive)

2) if you want to do a whole word search just add spaces on either sides of the keywords ie

where word ~* ' Spain '

cheers

Justin
www.thewallpaperking.com