Building Search Features 🔍

Add powerful search to your PHP apps with MySQL full-text search, Elasticsearch, and Meilisearch — including typo tolerance and relevance ranking.

What You'll Learn in This Lesson

• Why LIKE queries fail at scale and what to use instead
• Set up MySQL full-text search with MATCH/AGAINST
• Build an inverted index with relevance scoring
• Integrate typo-tolerant search with Meilisearch
• Compare Elasticsearch, Meilisearch, and Algolia

Note: PHP runs on a server. Our examples simulate PHP logic using JavaScript. To run real PHP, install PHP.

🎯 Real-World Analogy: LIKE '%term%' is like flipping through every page of a book looking for a word. Full-text search is like using the book's index — it pre-sorts words and tells you exactly which pages to look at. Meilisearch is like a librarian who understands typos: "Did you mean 'keyboard'?"

MySQL Full-Text Search

MySQL's built-in full-text search creates an inverted index on your text columns, enabling fast relevance-ranked searches. It supports boolean mode for advanced queries (+php -javascript), natural language mode for simple searches, and automatic stop word filtering.

Try It: Full-Text Search Engine

Build an inverted index with relevance scoring and stemming

Try it Yourself »

JavaScript

// Full-Text Search in MySQL & PHP
console.log("=== Why LIKE '%term%' is Not Enough ===");
console.log();
console.log("  LIKE '%php tutorial%':");
console.log("    ❌ No ranking by relevance");
console.log("    ❌ Scans every row (O(n) — slow on millions of rows)");
console.log("    ❌ No stemming ('running' won't match 'run')");
console.log("    ❌ No stop word handling");
console.log();
console.log("  Full-Text Search (FTS):");
console.log("    ✅ Relevance scoring and ranking");
console.log("    ✅
...

Meilisearch & External Engines

For typo tolerance, faceted filtering, and sub-50ms search, use a dedicated search engine. Meilisearch is the easiest to set up — one binary, REST API, and built-in typo tolerance. Elasticsearch is more powerful but requires significant infrastructure.

Try It: Meilisearch-Style Search

Typo-tolerant search with filtering and faceted results

Try it Yourself »

JavaScript

// Elasticsearch & Meilisearch Integration
console.log("=== Search Engine Comparison ===");
console.log();
console.log("  Engine       | Setup      | Speed     | Best For");
console.log("  ─────────────┼────────────┼───────────┼──────────────────────");
console.log("  MySQL FTS    | Built-in   | Good      | Simple sites, < 1M rows");
console.log("  Elasticsearch| Complex    | Excellent | Enterprise, analytics");
console.log("  Meilisearch  | Very easy  | Excellent | Small-medium apps, typo toler
...

⚠️ Common Mistakes

⚠️

Not sanitizing search input — Always use prepared statements for FTS queries. MATCH() AGAINST(:query) with bound parameters prevents SQL injection.

⚠️

Searching without debounce — Typing triggers a query per keystroke. Add 300ms debounce on the frontend before sending search requests.

💡

Pro Tip: Start with MySQL FTS for < 1M rows. Switch to Meilisearch when you need typo tolerance or instant search-as-you-type UX.

📋 Quick Reference — Search

Concept	Description
FULLTEXT INDEX	MySQL index type for text search
MATCH...AGAINST	MySQL FTS query syntax
Inverted Index	Maps words → document IDs for fast lookup
Stemming	Reducing "running" to "run" for broader matches
Typo Tolerance	Finding "keyboard" when user types "keybord"

🎉 Lesson Complete!

You can now build powerful search features! Next, learn to automate tasks with cron jobs and background workers.