How to implement a Keyword Search in MySQL?

July 30, 2023 by Tarik

For a single keyword on VARCHAR fields you can use LIKE:

SELECT id, category, location
FROM table
WHERE
(
    category LIKE '%keyword%'
    OR location LIKE '%keyword%'
)

For a description you’re usually better adding a full text index and doing a Full-Text Search (MyISAM only):

SELECT id, description
FROM table
WHERE MATCH (description) AGAINST('keyword1 keyword2')