Searching two tables

Question

I currently have following two tables:

CREATE TABLE files_list
(
    'listid' INT, 
    'name' VARCHAR(25), 
    'synonym' VARCHAR(25), 
    'description' VARCHAR(25)
);

CREATE TABLE files_tags
(
    'tag_name' VARCHAR(25), 
    'listid' INT
);

If someone uses the keyword "dragon ball", at the moment, I use following query to search my_list for possible matches:

SELECT * 
FROM files_list
WHERE name LIKE '%dragon%' 
OR synonym LIKE '%dragon%' 
OR description LIKE '%dragon%' 
OR name LIKE '%ball%' 
OR synonym LIKE '%ball%' 
OR description LIKE '%ball%' 

I am not sure how to search both tables using one query. I want to show the user following data in the search result: name, synonym, description and all tags.

My Questions 1. Is there any way to make the current mysql query shorter? 2. How can I combine it with files_tags table, - to show rows from files_list which has a match in files_tags, but not in files_list? - to show rows from files_list which has a match in files_list, but may not infiles_tags`?

You can see the current displayed result at http://hsbsitez.com/

Answer 1

It would make more sense to join the tables.

SELECT name, synonym, description, tag_name FROM `files_list` WHERE ( name LIKE '%dragon%' OR synonym LIKE '%dragon%' OR description LIKE '%dragon%' OR name LIKE '%ball%' OR synonym LIKE '%ball%' OR description LIKE '%ball%' )
OUTER JOIN files_tags on files_tags.listid = files_list.listid

OUTER JOIN will make sure all tags are selected, this will create duplicate rows when multiple tags per id are available, with the only difference being the tag