Question

In example

SELECT * FROM users WHERE first_name LIKE ‘%a%’ OR last_name LIKE ‘%a%’;

I need to know which one returned true?

I know I can run separate queries, but is there a more optimal way?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can use something like this, which implements a CASE statement:

SELECT firstname, lastname,
  case 
    when firstname LIKE '%a%' then 'firstname match' 
    when lastname LIKE '%a%' then 'last name match'
    else null
    end matchedcol
FROM users 
WHERE firstname LIKE '%a%' OR lastname LIKE '%a%';

See SQL Fiddle with Demo