Difference between LIKE AND like % %

[Archbob]

SO whats the difference between just:

SELECT * from table where field like bob

And

 
SELECT * from table where field like '%bob%'

I've always used the second, but whats the difference?

[Technosailor]

The first matches only bob. The second would match archbob or bobolink or anything with bob in the middle of it. % is a wildcard.

[Technosailor]

Actually I'm wrong. The first doesn't match anything because bob is a string and needs to be enclosed in quotes. In fact, you'll get a MySQL error.

[Archbob]

So:

SELECT * from table where field like 'bob'

Is essentially the same as:

SELECT * from table where field='bob'

?

So is there a select option in string that do like if you have a string like "the bob", search for entries that contain either "the" or "bob"?

[Technosailor]

yes exactly

[Archbob]

So is there a select option in string that do like if you have a string like "the bob", search for entries that contain either "the" or "bob"?

So is there a select state that does this in just mySQL?

[Technosailor]

SELECT * FROM table WHERE entry LIKE '%the%' OR LIKE '%bob%';

[r937]

WHERE entry LIKE '%the%' OR entry LIKE '%bob%';

[Technosailor]

Ah right... thanks r... little overlook there...

[Archbob]

Thanks, but thats not what I was talking about. I was asking if mySQL had a select that automatically string through a string and split it into individual words by the space.

[r937]

no, there isn't

[ToOnZ]

Thanks, but thats not what I was talking about. I was asking if mySQL had a select that automatically string through a string and split it into individual words by the space.

Hi. Sorry dont understand what you mean by auto string through a string and split. Could you explain what you mean ? Cause im also learning SQL and would be glad to find out more

[XtrEM3]

Thanks, but thats not what I was talking about. I was asking if mySQL had a select that automatically string through a string and split it into individual words by the space.

you would need the PHP function explode() (or the equivelant in other languages), which puts a string into an array, split by a delimiter.

[Archbob]

I'm mainly concerned about spaces so split would be good enough here.