Question

Basically, what I need is the inverse of this:

SELECT * FROM `table` WHERE `query` LIKE '%string%'

Something that looks like:

SELECT * FROM `table` WHERE '%string%' LIKE 'thestringmachine'

I looked up the internet an operation called CONTAINS() but it doesn’t seem to work.
Can someone help me?

Edit:

$inc = "themachinethatthinks";
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `spell` WHERE CONTAINS('$inc',`word`)");
$num = mysql_numrows($query); $i=0; 

while ($i < $num) {

    $val = mysql_result($query,$i,"word");

    echo $val."<br>";

$i++;
}

The database contains lot of words (only).

Answer 1

I am not sure I understand what you need, but I try:

SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE LOCATE(your_col, 'thestringmachine') > 0

If you need query to be case insensitive:

SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE LOCATE(LOWER(your_col), LOWER('thestringmachine')) > 0