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MySQL: How to search multiple tables for a string existing in any column

How can I search for in table_a table_b table_c, which have a random number of columns for a string?

I know this is not proper sql but it would be something like:

SELECT * FROM users, accounts, something_else WHERE ->ANY COLUMN CONTAINS 'this_string'<-

Ty in advance for SO community

Solution

  • Add fulltext indexes to all of the string columns in all of those tables, then union the results

    select * from table1 where match(col1, col2, col3) against ('some string')
union all
select * from table2 where match(col1, col2) against ('some string')
union all
select * from table3 where match(col1, col2, col3, col4) against ('some string')
...