pf » Searching without Verity

Sometimes you need to search a database query without using verity. In general Verity should be used when possible, because it will yeild much better results, at better performance than the solution I'm about to show. But there are reasons for not using verity, for instance compatibility with BlueDragon, a highly customized search query, or a shared host that doesn't allow it.

Single keyword searches are easy using the LIKE operator in SQL WHERE column LIKE '%something%'. If you need to search using multiple keywords, its a harder. Here's an exmple

 SELECT stuff FROM table
 WHERE column LIKE '%#Replace(Trim(q), " ", "%' OR column  LIKE '%", "ALL")#%'

Here column would be the database field your searching and q would be your search string. Basically that code replaces all spaces with:

%' OR column like '%

So if your search string is "Monday Tuesday" the resulting query would be:

WHERE column LIKE '%Monday%' OR column LIKE '%Tuesday%'

You can ofcourse easily replace the OR with an AND, or use a variable.