Question

this is what I have:

SELECT `id`, `names` FROM `screenplays` WHERE `names` LIKE '%joe%mike%'

the field names contains:

row1: joe
row2: mike
row3: joe,mike

how do I return all 3 rows as a result ?

Answer 1

Use

SELECT `id`, `names` 
FROM `screenplays` 
WHERE `names` LIKE '%joe%' 
    OR `names` LIKE '%mike%'

If the names are separated by a comma, and you don’t want names like joey when you specify joe, you can expand on the query like:

SELECT `id`, `names` 
FROM `screenplays` 
WHERE `names` LIKE 'joe'
    OR `names` LIKE '%,joe'
    OR `names` LIKE 'joe,%'
    OR `names` LIKE '%,joe,%'

And similarly for each keyword