MySQL Use of IN, LIKE and OR - php

Question

I am attempting to write a search algorithm, nothing too advanced but it isnt just WHERE field1 = 'searchtext'. I am trying to search all keywords across multiple fields.
I have done a bit of searching and it seems as though my take on the matter is not compliant with MySQL's use of 'IN' with other functions, however I cannot find anything that seems to suggest a better way either here on stackoverflow or using google on independant blogs and other tutorial sites.
$fields = array('type','suburb','postcode','address'); // Fields in db being searched
$queried = $db->real_escape_string($_REQUEST['keyword']); // Input from form
$keys = explode(" ",$queried); // Determine individual keywords
$sql = "SELECT * FROM `properties` WHERE "; // Beginning of SQL Statement
$frc = 0; // Field Counter
foreach($fields as $f){
$inner = ''; // Reset $inner each run
$irc = 0; // Reset Inner Counter each run
$frc++; // Increase Field Counter
if($frc != 1){ $sql .= " OR "; } // All except first runthrough
$sql .= "`".$f."` IN "; // `field` IN
foreach($keys as $k){
$irc++; // Increase inner counter
if($irc == 1){
$inner .= "('%".$k."%'"; // First Inner per run (aka each keyword)
}else{
$inner .= ", '%".$k."%'"; // All other Inners
}
}
$inner .= ")"; // Inner finishes run before reset
$sql .= $inner; // Add Inner to SQL ready for query
}
$sql .= ";"; // Clean finish to SQL statement
$SearchProperties = $db->query($sql); // Run Query
I have included commentary to help you understand my messy code and what I felt I was doing. The code is giving me the expected output, for example if I search the keyword "house" my output is as follows;
$queried = house 3064
$sql = SELECT * FROM `properties` WHERE `type` IN ('%house%', '%3064%') OR `suburb` IN ('%house%', '%3064%') OR `postcode` IN ('%house%', '%3064%') OR `address` IN ('%house%', '%3064%');
Within the type column there is house and townhouse, it should be able to hit both, and should hit anything with the postcode 3064 regardless of if it has house in another column (According to what I want to accomplish)
However after several hours of searching, although my output is as desired I don't believe it to be correct. Could anybody help shed some light on the CORRECT method of solving my quandry and WHY this does not work? I always like to understand and learn from these sort of misunderstandings.
Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

If you have wildcards, you want like rather than in:
SELECT *
FROM `properties`
WHERE (`type` LIKE '%house%') OR
(`suburb` LIKE '%house%') OR
(`postcode` LIKE '%house%') OR
(`address` LIKE '%house%');
However, I would strongly suggest that you investigate full text indexes (see here). The use of MATCH() may greatly simplify your efforts.
EDIT:
Your query is still incorrect. And you should still be using like:
SELECT *
FROM `properties`
WHERE (`type` LIKE '%house%' or type like '%3064%') OR
(`suburb` LIKE '%house%' or suburb like '%3064%') OR
(`postcode` LIKE '%house%' or postcode like '%3064%') OR
(`address` LIKE '%house%' or address like '%3064%');

Answer 2

Try change 'IN' to 'LIKE'.
For example
$queried = house
$sql = SELECT * FROM `properties` WHERE
`type` LIKE '%house%'
OR `suburb` LIKE '%house%'
OR `postcode` LIKE '%house%'
OR `address` LIKE '%house%';
If you have a several keywords, then you need change query.
For example
$queried = house 3064
$sql = SELECT * FROM `properties` WHERE
(`type` LIKE '%house%' AND `type` LIKE '%3064%')
OR (`suburb` LIKE '%house%' AND `suburb` LIKE '%3064%')
OR (`postcode` LIKE '%house%' AND `postcode` LIKE '%3064%')
OR (`address` LIKE '%house%' AND `address` LIKE '%3064%');