1️⃣6️⃣ 📖 MySQL Full-Text Search – Advanced Text Matching in MySQL

MySQL Full-Text Search is a powerful feature designed for efficient and intelligent searching across large text-based datasets. Unlike LIKE or REGEXP, it offers ranked search results, natural language understanding, and boolean search flexibility — making it ideal for blogs, search engines, and content-heavy applications.

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🧲 Introduction – Why Use Full-Text Search?

Simple operators like LIKE and REGEXP fall short when handling large volumes of text or when relevance-based search is required. MySQL’s Full-Text Search introduces capabilities such as:

✅ Natural language text searching
🧠 Ranked results based on relevance
🧰 Boolean operators like +, -, "...", *
🚀 Full-text indexing optimized for performance

🎯 In this guide, you’ll learn:

• How full-text indexing and search works
• Syntax for MATCH() ... AGAINST()
• Boolean vs Natural Language modes
• Search customization using word length and stopwords
• Best practices for building text search engines

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📘 Topics Covered

🔢 Topic	📄 Description
🔍 Full-Text Search Overview	MATCH() … AGAINST(), supported types
⚙️ Creating FULLTEXT Indexes	On new or existing tables
🧪 Natural Language Mode	Search based on relevance
🚀 Boolean Mode	Search using +, -, “”, and *
📈 View Relevance Score	Sort by score
🔠 Stopwords & Min Length	Control indexed terms
🧠 Full-Text vs LIKE vs REGEXP	Functional comparison
🛠️ Use Cases	Real-world application
📘 Best Practices	Optimization & indexing tips
📌 Summary & FAQ	Quick recap & answers

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🔍 1. What Is Full-Text Search in MySQL?

MySQL Full-Text Search allows fast and intelligent text matching using the FULLTEXT index and MATCH() … AGAINST() syntax.

✅ Supported on:

• InnoDB (MySQL 5.6+)
• MyISAM
• Column Types: CHAR, VARCHAR, TEXT

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⚙️ 2. Creating a FULLTEXT Index

➕ Create with Table

CREATE TABLE articles (
  id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  title VARCHAR(255),
  content TEXT,
  FULLTEXT(title, content)
);

🛠️ Add to Existing Table

ALTER TABLE articles ADD FULLTEXT(title, content);

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🧪 3. Basic Usage – Natural Language Mode

SELECT * FROM articles
WHERE MATCH(title, content)
AGAINST('machine learning');

✅ Matches any row with relevant words
✅ Automatically ranked by relevance

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🚀 4. Boolean Mode Search

🔹 Syntax:

SELECT * FROM articles
WHERE MATCH(title, content)
AGAINST('+mysql -mongodb' IN BOOLEAN MODE);

🧠 Boolean Operators:

Operator	Description	Example
+	Word must be present	+database +performance
-	Word must NOT be present	+mysql -oracle
" " "	Exact phrase match	"full text search"
*	Wildcard (suffix only)	dev* = developer, devops
()	Group expressions	+(php mysql) -(mongodb)
> <	Word importance	>fast <slow

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📈 5. View Relevance Score

SELECT id, title,
MATCH(title, content) AGAINST('search engine') AS score
FROM articles
ORDER BY score DESC;

✅ Allows sorting results by relevance ranking

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🔍 6. Minimum Word Length & Stopwords

✂️ Default Configurations:

• Minimum Word Length: 4 characters
• Ignored Stopwords: Common terms like the, is, at

🔧 Customize:

[mysqld]
ft_min_word_len = 3
ft_stopword_file = 'custom_stopwords.txt'

⚠️ Rebuild FULLTEXT indexes after changing these values.

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🧠 7. Full-Text Search vs LIKE vs REGEXP

Feature	FULLTEXT	LIKE	REGEXP
🔍 Speed	✅ Fast (Indexed)	⚠️ Slow	❌ Slowest
🧠 Phrase Support	✅ Yes (with "")	❌ No	✅ Complex
🎯 Ranked Results	✅ Yes	❌ No	❌ No
🔢 Boolean Logic	✅ Yes	❌ No	✅ (with effort)
✨ Wildcards	✅ * suffix only	✅ %, _	✅ [], {} etc.

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🛠️ 8. Practical Use Cases

Scenario	Pattern	Why
📰 Blog Search	MATCH ... AGAINST('php')	Relevance-based search
🛒 Product Filter	AGAINST('+laptop -apple' IN BOOLEAN MODE)	Inclusion/exclusion
📚 Documentation Search	AGAINST('"user guide"')	Exact phrase queries
🧠 Duplicate Detection	MATCH ... AGAINST(...)	Identify similar records

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📘 Best Practices

✅ Tip	💡 Why It Matters
Use FULLTEXT on large searchable fields	Boosts performance and speed
Limit FULLTEXT columns	Reduces index size
Customize stopwords and min length	Better indexing and matching
Use IN BOOLEAN MODE for precision	Define must-have or must-not-have words
Monitor index health after bulk updates	Avoid stale or broken indexes

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📌 Summary – Recap & Next Steps

MySQL Full-Text Search provides fast, ranked, and intelligent pattern matching for large text fields. It’s a must-have for applications that rely on relevance scoring and advanced query logic like search engines or content management systems.

🔍 Key Takeaways

• Use MATCH() ... AGAINST() with FULLTEXT indexes
• Choose between natural language or boolean mode
• Sort by relevance using score
• Customize indexing behavior via stopwords and word length
• Best for searchable applications like blogs, CRMs, and search engines

⚙️ Real-World Relevance

Full-text search powers modern search engines, knowledge bases, FAQs, product catalogs, and AI-based assistants where performance and precision are essential.

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❓ FAQ – MySQL Full-Text Search

❓ Does FULLTEXT work on TEXT columns?

✅ Yes, it supports TEXT, VARCHAR, and CHAR.

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❓ Is Full-Text case-sensitive?

❌ No, it is case-insensitive by default.

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❓ Can I use FULLTEXT on InnoDB?

✅ Yes. Supported in MySQL 5.6 and above (recommended 8.0+).

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❓ Can FULLTEXT work with other WHERE clauses?

✅ Absolutely. Example:

SELECT * FROM articles
WHERE MATCH(title, content) AGAINST('mysql')
AND status = 'published';

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❓ Can I sort search results by match quality?

✅ Yes. Use:

MATCH(...) AGAINST(...) AS score
ORDER BY score DESC;

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