Question

I have this scenario:

I have a mysql database, with a table that contain strings.
I send a string through a post/get/whatever request to a script that must check if a string from the table is contained into the sent string.

For example I have the word “test” in the table and I send the word “atesta”. I want to return true.

The other way around (check if the word is contained inside the database) is simple (select bla bla where column like “%string%”).

I hope my way of describing the problem is clear enough.

Answer 1

Reverse the arguments. Then use the the concatenation operator || to add the %, front and back:

WHERE 'string' LIKE ('%' || column || '%')

or the concatenation function:

WHERE 'string' LIKE CONCAT('%', column, '%')

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I should mention that default settings have the || operator act as a synonym for logical OR operator. To act as the standard concatenation operator, the server has to run in ANSI mode (read about the PIPES_AS_CONCAT detail).