Question

I am trying to get a search result base on category and keyword(using like or regexp) however the problem is that, my query also returns other categories result it is basing on the keyword.

SELECT * FROM (`listings`)
LEFT JOIN `listing_categories` ON `listings`.`ls_id` = `listing_categories`.`ls_id`
LEFT JOIN `listings_categories` ON `listing_categories`.`lc_id` = `listings_categories`.`lc_id`
LEFT JOIN `users` ON `users`.`id` = `listings`.`ls_user_id`
WHERE `listings`.`ls_status` =  1
AND listings_categories.lc_id = 17
OR listings_categories.lc_parent = 17
AND listings.ls_keywords LIKE '%Test Broken Functionality%'
OR listings.ls_keywords LIKE '%Test%'
OR listings.ls_keywords LIKE '%Broken%'
OR listings.ls_keywords LIKE '%Functionality%'
GROUP BY `listings`.`ls_id`
ORDER BY MATCH(listings.ls_keywords) AGAINST('Test Broken Functionality') DESC

Category ID 17 doesnt really have any entries or posts in the database but my query returns results using from other categories…

Answer 1

Notice the parenthesis, almost like IF statements around the (listings_categories.lc_id = 17 OR listings_categories.lc_parent = 17) and ls_keywords LIKE .... This forces two conditions that must be met, rather than the multiple conditions you have:

SELECT * FROM (`listings`)
LEFT JOIN `listing_categories` 
    ON `listings`.`ls_id` = `listing_categories`.`ls_id`
LEFT JOIN `listings_categories` 
    ON `listing_categories`.`lc_id` = `listings_categories`.`lc_id`
LEFT JOIN `users` 
    ON `users`.`id` = `listings`.`ls_user_id`
WHERE `listings`.`ls_status` =  1
    AND (listings_categories.lc_id = 17 OR listings_categories.lc_parent = 17)
    AND (listings.ls_keywords LIKE '%Test Broken Functionality%'
        OR listings.ls_keywords LIKE '%Test%'
        OR listings.ls_keywords LIKE '%Broken%'
        OR listings.ls_keywords LIKE '%Functionality%')
GROUP BY `listings`.`ls_id`
ORDER BY MATCH(listings.ls_keywords) AGAINST('Test Broken Functionality') DESC