mysql query to search for address or postcode

Question

Hi I am having difficulties writing a perfect sql query that will search for an address or postcode(english).

I stored my postcode as "W1Y TF7". If a user searches using "W1YTF7" (without the space), it does give me any result when it is suppose to return W1Y TF7.

VENUE

• VenueID
• Name
• Address1
• Address2
• City
• Postcode
• PhoneNumer
• URL

here is my query:

SELECT DISTINCT *
 FROM venue 
WHERE Name LIKE '%$searchValue%' 
   OR Postcode LIKE '%$searchValue%'
   OR Address2 LIKE '%$searchValue%' 
   OR Postcode LIKE '$searchValue%' 

Answer 1

I would probably store the postcodes in the database without the space. Then you could simply strip the spaces out of the string before running your SQL query.

If you want to keep your current setup, why not convert the input into your expected format BEFORE it gets to the SQL level? Just add the space if it's not there.

Answer 2

well, the first pitfall: I could see you run into some problems here if things are uninitiated (if $searchValue is an empty string or a very small string). This would always return a very large dataset (and might take quite some time).

for the postcode, you could do (LEFT(Postcode, 3) = LEFT($searchValue, 3) AND RIGHT(Postcode, 3) = RIGHT($searchValue, 3))

also, you might want to look into prepared statements and value binding, but that's a different problem altogether

Answer 3

You can make a search column, create a new field that you call SearchColumn the venue table, then make a SELECT and UPDATE trigger that sets the same values in all the fields you want to use (VenueID + Name + Address1 + Address2 + City + Postal Code + PhoneNumer + URL). ex. if you insert. It's also nice to have this included as an index.

Then you need to:

SELECT DISTINCT Name
      FROM venue
       WHERE SearchColumn LIKE '%Search value%'