Hi You could use either normal or fulltext searches. Regexp may well be a good answer (not used it myself). The following should also work
SELECT * FROM table WHERE field LIKE "% cat %" OR field LIKE "% cat. %" OR field LIKE "% cat, %" (note the spaces to make sure you get only complete words) or if you have a mysql version that supports FULLTEXT SELECT * FROM table WHERE MATCH (field) AGAINST ('cat'); http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Fulltext_Search.html which is much more elegant HTH Peter ----------------------------------------------- Excellence in internet and open source software ----------------------------------------------- Sunmaia Birmingham UK www.sunmaia.net tel. 0121-242-1473 International +44-121-242-1473 ----------------------------------------------- -----Original Message----- From: Mark Goodge [mailto:mark@;good-stuff.co.uk] Sent: 04 November 2002 11:21 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: select using regexp Hi, I've got a problem that I'm hoping someone can help with. I need to do a query against a text column in order to extract entries that will match whole words only - for example, a search for "cat" should match any of: The cat sat on the mat It was a large cat. Cat food is interesting. Dog. Cat. Fish. but not match in a catatonic state it was a catastrophe scattergun approach It looks as if the MySQL REGEXP function is what I need here, but I can't work out from the documentation how to get what I want. Any suggestions? Mark --------------------------------------------------------------------- Before posting, please check: http://www.mysql.com/manual.php (the manual) http://lists.mysql.com/ (the list archive) To request this thread, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Trouble unsubscribing? Try: http://lists.mysql.com/php/unsubscribe.php --------------------------------------------------------------------- Before posting, please check: http://www.mysql.com/manual.php (the manual) http://lists.mysql.com/ (the list archive) To request this thread, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Trouble unsubscribing? Try: http://lists.mysql.com/php/unsubscribe.php