sql - MySQL SELECT query string matching

Question

Normally, when querying a database with SELECT, its common to want to find the records that match a given search string.

For example:

SELECT * FROM customers WHERE name LIKE '%Bob Smith%';

That query should give me all records where 'Bob Smith' appears anywhere in the name field.

What I'd like to do is the opposite.

Instead of finding all the records that have 'Bob Smith' in the name field, I want to find all the records where the name field is in 'Robert Bob Smith III, PhD.', a string argument to the query.

Answer 1

Just turn the LIKE around

SELECT * FROM customers
WHERE 'Robert Bob Smith III, PhD.' LIKE CONCAT('%',name,'%')