Question

I am working on to build a query in MYSQL by which I can search through firstName and lastName columns in table that can return all records that nearly matches it.

Like I want to search a name say, Aditya Kumar Sharma and my table containes something like this:

ID    firstName        lastName
1     Jack             Mathews
2     Aditya           Singh
3     James            Hopes
4     Aditya Kumar     Sharma
5     Adityahappy      Singh

Now I want all the records containing any of these Aditya or Kumar or Sharma in both firstName and lastName columns, which means I need following records in my resultset:

ID    firstName        lastName
2     Aditya           Singh
4     Aditya Kumar     Sharma
5     Adityahappy      Singh

Can anyone provide me some clue, how to get it done. and it will be more pleasing if the most matching record comes on top, that is:

ID    firstName        lastName
4     Aditya Kumar     Sharma

comes on top of resultset, as it is completely matching the query String.

EDIT : I am using InnoDB engine for my database so FullText do not work over that, is there any other way around or I am forced to switch my DB engine?

Answer 1

I think FULLTEXT search will work

SELECT *, 
     MATCH ( `FirstName`, `Lastname`) 
     AGAINST ('+name +middle_name +lastname' IN BOOLEAN MODE) as `rel`
FROM `table` 
WHERE MATCH ( `FirstName`, `Lastname`) 
     AGAINST ('+name +middle_name +lastname' IN BOOLEAN MODE)
ORDER BY `rel` DESC