mysql search without spaces

Question

I have a list of names in my database and I have to find the id of the name that I pass in the url.

My problem is that the names I pass in the url will not have a space in them while the saved record will in the database. When I search the database I get no records found.

e.g database record is "My Name" while what I will be passing in the url and searching with is "myname"

if(isset($_GET["name"])) $name = $_GET["name"];

SELECT id
FROM table
WHERE name Like '%$name%'

Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

// id don't know the exact syntax, but this is what you are searching for I guess:

// replace spaces with nothin temporarily, then check equal (=) not like (%%) if name is exactly the same (except the spaces)

SELECT id, REPLACE(name, ' ', '') AS tmp FROM table WHERE tmp='%$name%'

Answer 2

Obviously not the right way to store or search for, but if you must, try replacing the spaces with blanks like this:

SELECT id
FROM table
WHERE REPLACE(`name`,' ','') LIKE '%$name%'