MySQL SELECT LIKE or REGEXP to match multiple words in one record

mysql regex select sql-like

196,527

Solution 1

Well if you know the order of your words.. you can use:

SELECT `name` FROM `table` WHERE `name` REGEXP 'Stylus.+2100'

Also you can use:

SELECT `name` FROM `table` WHERE `name` LIKE '%Stylus%' AND `name` LIKE '%2100%'

Solution 2

I think that the best solution would be to use Regular expressions. It's cleanest and probably the most effective. Regular Expressions are supported in all commonly used DB engines.

In MySql there is RLIKE operator so your query would be something like:
~~SELECT * FROM buckets WHERE bucketname RLIKE 'Stylus|2100'~~
I'm not very strong in regexp so I hope the expression is ok.

Edit
The RegExp should rather be:

SELECT * FROM buckets WHERE bucketname RLIKE '(?=.*Stylus)(?=.*2100)'

More on MySql regexp support:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/regexp.html#operator_regexp

Solution 3

You can just replace each space with %

SELECT `name` FROM `table` WHERE `name` LIKE '%Stylus%2100%'

Solution 4

The correct solution is a FullText Search (if you can use it) https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/fulltext-search.html

This nearly does what you want:

SELECT * FROM buckets WHERE bucketname RLIKE '(Stylus|2100)+.*(Stylus|2100)+';

SELECT * FROM buckets WHERE bucketname RLIKE '(Stylus|2100|photo)+.*(Stylus|2100|photo)+.*(Stylus|2100|photo)+.*';

But this will also match "210021002100" which is not great.

Solution 5

you need to do something like this,

SELECT * FROM buckets WHERE bucketname RLIKE 'Stylus.*2100';

SELECT * FROM buckets WHERE bucketname RLIKE '(Stylus)+.*(2100)+';

View more solutions

196,527

Alessio Firenze

Updated on July 05, 2022

Comments

Alessio Firenze almost 2 years
The field table.name contains 'Stylus Photo 2100' and with the following query
```
SELECT `name` FROM `table` WHERE `name` LIKE '%Stylus 2100%'
```
I get no results. Of course i would if i searched
```
SELECT `name` FROM `table` WHERE `name` LIKE '%Photo 2100%'
```
How can I select the record by searching 'Stylus 2100' ?

Thanks
- Rick James over 5 years
  
  Caveat: This Question is about two words occurring in a particular order. Most of the Answers do not allow for matching "2100 Stylus".
Alessio Firenze over 12 years

Thanks but this way i wouldn't get if i searched 'Photo Stylus 2100'
Alessio Firenze over 12 years

Thanks, this way i won't get 'HP Laserjet 2100'. Sorry if my example was not the best.
mdprotacio over 12 years

haha! okay, that requirement was not specified on the question, "How can I select the record by searching 'Stylus 2100' ?"
Jeff DQ about 11 years

This regular expression does something different: it gets anything that contains either 'Stylus' or '2100', not necessarily both.
Alkanshel over 10 years

One of the repliers to the answer here compared LIKE / REGEX performance and found that LIKE performed better, FYI: stackoverflow.com/questions/1127088/mysql-like-in
SERPRO over 10 years

@Amalgovinus thanks for the link, I wouldn't have thought so.. It's good to know :)
Ondrej Bozek over 10 years

I've improved my RegExp
velop almost 10 years

I was searching for a regexp only solution and this trick did it ^^,
RTF about 9 years

I know this question is old, but is this not the most efficient solution? From what I can tell, this will match Photo Stylus 2100. It will match anything followed by Stylus followed by anything followed by 2100 followed by anything. If someone disagrees, please tell me why because it means I've fundamentally misunderstood something about like expressions.
Florin over 8 years

What if I have 3 words ?
SERPRO over 8 years

@Florin in the first query .+ indicate any character (1 or more) between Stylus and 2100 if you want to add EPSON it would be EPSON.+'Stylus.+2100 in the second query you just need to add a new AND in the WHERE clause
Florin over 8 years

Thanks @SERPRO. I know and I had tried ...but I am not getting the right result. But ... even with Stylus.+2100 I am not getting the right results ... with ^(.+EPSON.+2100.+)|^(.+2100.+EPSON.+).*$ I am geting the right LIKE results.
SERPRO over 8 years

@Florin See these examples sqlfiddle.com/#!9/53dbec0/1/0 sqlfiddle.com/#!9/53dbec0/2/0
Robin Kanters about 8 years

why not WHERE name LIKE '%Stylus%2100%'?
Admin almost 7 years

By adding a | between the 2 () like this RLIKE '(?=.*Stylus)|(?=.*2100)' will give separate results -->> rows with Stylus only, rows with 2100 only OR rows with both... but not necessarily the 2 in the same row...
bobble bubble almost 7 years

Did you try this? Never heard that MySql regex supports lookarounds.
tjbp over 6 years

@RTF I'm a bit late, but % is like + in Regex, not *. It matches something, not anything, so won't match Photo Stylus 2100 but would match Photo Stylus 2100x.
Rick James over 5 years

@bobblebubble - Good point; I think MySQL 8.0 and MariaDB 10.0 are when they got 'lookarounds' and lots of other esoteric regexps.
Rick James over 5 years

@tjbp - Wrong. LIKE's % matches the empty string. So it is essentially identical to RLIKE's .*. Melvin's answer stands; Alessio first comment is wrong. It is trivial to test: SELECT 'Photo Stylus 2100' LIKE '%Stylus%2100%'; returns 1 (meaning true).
Rick James over 5 years

The second one gives allows the silly StylusStylus 210021002100 -- Why have the +??
Rick James over 5 years

The first requires Stylus to come before 2100; the second lets them be in either order. So, they are "different" answers.
Adders over 5 years

What about SELECT name FROM table WHERE name REGEXP 'stylus|2100|photo'
Shakeel Ahmed over 2 years

SELECT name FROM table WHERE name RLIKE 'Stylus|2100'