MySQL & PHP : Multiple Keyword Search

Question

I have a string containing comma separated keywords. For Example:

$keywords = 'keyword1, keyword2, keyword3';

My Table schema, named tbl_address is like this ( simplified ) :

id        INT(11)        PRIMARY KEY, AUTO INCREMENT
address   VARCHAR(250)   NOT NULL

Assume I have to use MySQLi in PHP ( not PDO ).

Here is my current approach:

$result = array();
$keyword_tokens = explode(',', $keywords);
foreach($keyword_tokens as $keyword) {
  $keyword = mysqli_real_escape_string(trim($keyword));
  $sql = "SELECT * FROM tbl_address WHERE address LIKE'%$keyword%'";
  // query and collect the result to $result
  // before inserting to $result, check if the id exists in $result.
  // if yes, skip.
}
return $result;

This approach works, but inefficient in performance. If there are a lot of keywords, it will make a lot queries.

My question is, is there a better way to achieve the same goal ? i.e. what is the simplest way to return all records with the address containing the ANY of the keywords ?

Answer 1

A simple REGEXP might be what you're after. You'd have to check how efficient it is for yourself.

SELECT * FROM tbl_address WHERE field REGEXP 'keyword1|keyword2|keyword3';

Answer 2

 SELECT * FROM user;
 +---------+----------+
 | user_id | username |
 +---------+----------+
 |     101 | Adam     |
 |     102 | Ben      |
 |     103 | Charlie  |
 |     104 | Dave     |
 +---------+----------+

 SELECT * 
   FROM user 
  WHERE FIND_IN_SET(username,'adam,ben,dave') > 0;
 +---------+----------+
 | user_id | username |
 +---------+----------+
 |     101 | Adam     |
 |     102 | Ben      |
 |     104 | Dave     |
 +---------+----------+