MySQL Query for Multiple Strings with LIKE

When doing a query for multiple strings, you can combine them with some caveats.

The short version is

 SELECT ID, post_title, post_content FROM `wp_posts` WHERE `post_content` LIKE '%your%post%';

searches for
anything your anything post anything

So our database row matches when the post_content has a match within it to the regular expression /your.*post/.

Example MySQL LIKE

In my database table, I have a column called post_content and for one row the value of that column is.

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

The query

SELECT ID, post_title, post_content FROM `wp_posts` WHERE `post_content` LIKE '%your first post%';

returns this row in our database because your first post appears as a substring in the content.

Separating the Strings with %

By adding % between each string, we can check that each string exists.

The query

SELECT ID, post_title, post_content FROM `wp_posts` WHERE `post_content` LIKE '%your%post%';

returns our row in the database because
your first post” appears in the content (even though they don’t appear together, i.e. your post does not appear).

Hat Tip to Tom McFarlin

Thanks for Tom McFarlin, who mentions this in the context of his article Search Post Metadata in the WordPress Admin Area.

Updated

Thanks to dz for the corrections provided in the comments. This article has been updated based on these corrections.

Sal Ferrarello (@salcode)

Sal is a PHP and JavaScript developer with a focus on the WordPress platform. He is a conference speaker with a background including Piano Player, Radio DJ, Magician/Juggler, Beach Photographer, and High School Math Teacher. Sal can be found professionally at WebDevStudios, where he works as a principal engineer.