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POUsing mysql concat() in WHERE clause?
 

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    <p>I would like to search my table having a column of first names and a column of last names. I currently accept a search term from a field and compare it against both columns, one at a time with </p> <pre><code> select * from table where first_name like '%$search_term%' or last_name like '%$search_term%'; </code></pre> <p>This works fine with single word search terms but the result set includes everyone with the name "Larry". But if someone enters a first name then a space, then a last name, I want a narrower search result. I've tried the following without success. </p> <pre><code> select * from table where first_name like '%$search_term%' or last_name like '%$search_term%' or concat_ws(' ',first_name,last_name) like '%$search_term%'; </code></pre> <p>Any advice?</p> <p><strong>EDIT:</strong> The name I'm testing with is "Larry Smith". The db stores "Larry" in the "first_name" column, and "Smith" in the "last_name" column. The data is clean, no extra spaces and the search term is trimmed left and right.</p> <p><strong>EDIT 2:</strong> I tried Robert Gamble's answer out this morning. His is very similar to what I was running last night. I can't explain it, but this morning it works. The only difference I can think of is that last night I ran the concat function as the third "or" segment of my search query (after looking through first_name and last_name). This morning I ran it as the last segment after looking through the above as well as addresses and business names. </p> <p>Does running a mysql function at the end of a query work better than in the middle?</p>
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    1. COI just ran the version you were having trouble with and it works fine for me.
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