Need help tuning a select query to change a Match/Against clause to a Like clause

Question

I'm currently trying to incorporate a LIKE clause into my SQL select statement and take out the associating MATCH/AGAINST clause.

Ive tried many different variations of it and feel that I'm missing something since none have seemed to work yet.

The full php Page is

<?php

    if(isset($_POST['searchQuery']))
    {
          require_once('config.inc.php');
          $search_query=$_POST['searchQuery'];

          $sql = 'SELECT * from tbl_fish where MATCH(fish_name,size_name,cat_name) AGAINST(:search_query)';

          $statement = $connection->prepare($sql);
          $statement->bindParam(':search_query', $search_query, PDO::PARAM_STR);
          $statement->execute();
          if($statement->rowCount())
          {
                $row_all = $statement->fetchall(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
                header('Content-type: application/json');
                echo json_encode($row_all);
          }  
          elseif(!$statement->rowCount())
          {
              echo "no rows";
          }
    }
?>

I've tried statements like this

 $sql = 'SELECT * from tbl_fish WHERE (fish_name LIKE '%'searchQuery'%')';

But I have yet to come up with a working one. These results are being queried from an android application so I'm wondering if I'm missing something more than just changing that one statement. I was following a tutorial for this and it all works except when I try to change the parameters for the query.

Hoping to get some feedback from you guys. Thanks.

Answer 1

For build a proper like clause you can use concat

$sql = "SELECT * from tbl_fish WHERE  fish_name LIKE concat ( '%', :searchQuery, '%')";

and for match the 3 columns you should use OR

$sql = "SELECT * from tbl_fish 
   WHERE  fish_name LIKE concat ( '%', :searchQuery, '%')
     or size_name   LIKE concat ( '%', :searchQuery, '%')
     or cat_name    LIKE concat ( '%', :searchQuery, '%');";