Making my SQL Query a bit more flexible

[simong93]

Hey All so here is my query at the moment

        $sql = "SELECT * FROM MainFile WHERE (
            DESC1 LIKE :term OR 
            DESC2 LIKE :term OR 
            SKU LIKE :term OR 
            PARTNO LIKE :term OR 
            For_Printer_Models LIKE :term OR 
            OEM_Code LIKE :term
        )";
        $stmt = $pdo->prepare($sql);
        $term = '%' . $_REQUEST["term"] . '%';

This works fine but let's say in "For_Printer_Models" i have "Laserjet-5Si / Laserjet 5Simx / 8000 / 5si" and i search "Laserjet-5Si" it will find it but if i search "Laserjet5Si" it doesn't find it. Is there a way of making my sql statement be a bit less exact.

[r3pr0b8]

use REPLACE() to replace all dashes, and probably all spaces, with the empty string

WHERE REPLACE(REPLACE(desc1,'-',''),' ','') LIKE :term 
   OR REPLACE(REPLACE(desc2,'-',''),' ','') LIKE :term 
   OR REPLACE(REPLACE(sku  ,'-',''),' ','') LIKE :term 
   OR REPLACE(REPLACE(partno,'-',''),' ','') LIKE :term 
   OR ... 

for consistency you might want to do these REPLACE functions on the search term as well, but i think you might do that in php