php - Is there a limitation to the length of the query in mysql?

Question

I am asking this question because I need to know this limitation as I am generating SELECT query in my PHP script and the part of WHERE in this query is generated inside the loop.
Precisely it looks like this

 $query="SELECT field_names FROM table_name WHERE ";
 $condition="metadata like "%$uol_metadata_arr[0]%" ";
 for($i=1; $i<count($uol_metadata_arr); $i++){
    $condition.=" OR metadata like "%$uol_metadata_arr[$i]%" ";
 }
 $query.=$condition;
 $result=mysql_query($query);

So, that's why I need to know how long my $query string can be, because the array $uol_metadata_arr could contain many items.

Answer 1

1. (if possible) Use WHERE metadata IN ('value1', 'value2')
2. You may need to increase max_allowed_packet. It defaults to 16MB (client-side, and as low as 1MB server-side in older versions), and it's not that hard to construct a query that runs up against that limit (e.g., importing data from elsewhere with a giant INSERT query)

LIKE '%string%' is a performance killer. Such a query can't use an index on that column. LIKE 'string%' on the other hand, is indexable