how can i make more intelligent search by php and mysql - php

Question

I have a table for places on database it contains two rows for title and description
I made a search by PHP and MYSQL like that
$select_place = $mysqli->query("SELECT * FROM places where title LIKE '%$searchname%' or description LIKE '%$searchname%'");
$num_place = $select_place->num_rows;
while ($rows_place = $select_place->fetch_array(MYSQL_ASSOC)){
$id_place = $rows_place ['id'];
$title_place = $rows_place ['title'];
$description_place = $rows_place ['description'];
echo "<p>{$title_place}</p><br>";
}
It works well, But, for example, if you search for the word tower if written in wrong way like twer or towr it doesn't work How can i make it more intelligent?

Answer 1

One good option is to include MySQL SOUNDEX() function:
SELECT
*
FROM
places
WHERE
title LIKE '%$searchname%'
OR description LIKE '%$searchname%'
OR SOUNDEX(title) = SOUNDEX('$searchname')
OR SOUNDEX(description) = SOUNDEX('$searchname')
This will match both towr and twer from your example.
More can be found here:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/string-functions.html#function_soundex
Note that:
This function, as currently implemented, is intended to work well with
strings that are in the English language only. Strings in other
languages may not produce reliable results.

Answer 2

i found very useful way to do it
here it is
$searchname = stringsafe($_GET['search']);
$searchname2 = explode(" ", $searchname);
$query = "SELECT * FROM places WHERE ";
foreach ($searchname2 as $each) {
$i++;
if($i == 1){
$query .= " title LIKE '%$each%'
OR description LIKE '%$each%'
OR SOUNDEX(title) = SOUNDEX('$each')
OR SOUNDEX(description) = SOUNDEX('$each')";
}else{
$query .= " OR title LIKE '%$each%'
OR description LIKE '%$each%'
OR SOUNDEX(title) = SOUNDEX('$each')
OR SOUNDEX(description) = SOUNDEX('$each')";
}
}
$select_place = $mysqli->query("$query limit 20");
$num_place = $select_place->num_rows;
if($num_place == 0){
echo "<div class='message-no'>No results</div>";
}
else{
while ($rows_place = $select_place->fetch_array(MYSQL_ASSOC)){
$id_place = $rows_place ['id'];
$title_place = $rows_place ['title'];
$description_place = $rows_place ['description'];
echo $title_place."<br>";
}