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FULLTEXT or LIKE?

Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 3:39 pm
by alex.barylski
I have a small single keyword text field...

Should I use FULLTEXT on the field or LIKE? The reason I ask, is because, ideally I would like the RDBMS to handle synonyms and inflections (ie: runs, running, runner, etc).

I suppose LIKE would work, assuming someone entered 'run' as it could potentially match all above. However, what if someone typed 'runnings' and actually meant 'runner'.

Soundex support would also be neat...

I need ot build a fairly sophisticated keyword search for an application but I do not have the luxury of detailed profile TEXT fields, instead I have a few single keyword VARCHAR fields...

Whats says you?

Re: FULLTEXT or LIKE?

Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 3:49 pm
by anand
PCSpectra wrote:I have a small single keyword text field...

Should I use FULLTEXT on the field or LIKE? The reason I ask, is because, ideally I would like the RDBMS to handle synonyms and inflections (ie: runs, running, runner, etc).

I suppose LIKE would work, assuming someone entered 'run' as it could potentially match all above. However, what if someone typed 'runnings' and actually meant 'runner'.

Soundex support would also be neat...

I need ot build a fairly sophisticated keyword search for an application but I do not have the luxury of detailed profile TEXT fields, instead I have a few single keyword VARCHAR fields...

Whats says you?
LIKE.

Re: FULLTEXT or LIKE?

Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 6:30 pm
by Eran
Sphinx (if you can) - http://www.sphinxsearch.com/
Bear in mind that if you use LIKE with wildcards at both sides it can't use an index (= slow)

Re: FULLTEXT or LIKE?

Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 10:59 am
by pickle
LIKE doesn't handle synonyms & similar words. FULLTEXT does.

Re: FULLTEXT or LIKE?

Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:34 pm
by rollydudez
pickle wrote:LIKE doesn't handle synonyms & similar words. FULLTEXT does.
YEAH i think there is no similarity :roll:


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