MySQL Search Across Columns with Concat

Using MySQL’s Concat and Concat_Ws is your friend when trying to search two joined column/field values.

This will sometimes be encountered in a simple example such as a name search, when you have two columns: 1. First Name (fname) and 2. Last Name (lname) and your search criteria is by Full Name.

So, let’s say you have a table named ‘gms’ with 2 columns, first name and last name:

fname  lname
billy beane
brian  cashman

Let’s say, you’re searching for a great general manager. You would of course search for the full name;  “billy beane”.

The sql for this would look like so:

select * from gms where concat_ws(‘ ‘,fname,lname) like “%billie beane%”;

You can also just strip the space and use ‘concat’:

select * from gms where concat(fname,lname) like “%billiebeane%”;

So, that’s about it. Using MySQL concat to search the value of 2 joined columns.