Search with multiple tables & ORDER BY php mysql - php

Question

I have a script i want to search multiple tables how can i do that.
**Also add ORDER BY function in Mysql query **
help is appreciated.
if(isset($_GET["search"]))
{
$condition = '';
//$query = explode(" ", $_GET["search"]);
$query = explode(" ", $_GET["search"]);
foreach($query as $text)
{
$condition .= "title LIKE +'%".mysqli_real_escape_string($connect, $text)."%' OR ";
}
$condition = substr($condition, 0, -4);
$sql_query = "SELECT * FROM countries WHERE " . $condition;
$result = mysqli_query($connect, $sql_query);
if(mysqli_num_rows($result) > 0)
{
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
{
echo '<tr><td>'.$row["title"].'</td></tr>';
}
}
else
{
echo '<label>Data not Found</label>';
}
}

Answer 1

SELECT * FROM (
(SELECT title FROM countries WHERE title LIKE '%mystring%')
UNION
(SELECT title FROM locations WHERE title LIKE '%mystring%')
) ta
That's the sql, but would need to point out the drawbacks of using union as a search tool.
a) The longer the tables get the longer the search will get, you can add in Limits on each query and then on the union as a whole - but it's not a winner.
b) The table columns have to match up so you'll need perhaps to do myID as ID, then you will need an extra column to say which each is (0=country, 1= location)
c) I guess you are trying to do a site search of sorts, in which case there isn't a relevance in this instance.
Hence I would use something like http://sphinxsearch.com/ bit tricky to get started, but a really quick search engine. If you have a large site. Otherwise look into mysql full text searches which also have relevence and are built in so easier to get started with.