I have this query looking for "php" in my table but it doesnt return any results and i know that php exists in my table whether its on its own or in a string.

PHP Code:

$sql2 = mysql_fetch_array(mysql_query("SELECT * FROM search_engine__information WHERE MATCH(url) AGAINST ('php')"));
echo "" . $sql2[0] . ""; 


can anyone tell me where im going wrong?

No idea do you have an index set up as "FULLTEXT"

Are the tables MyIsam and are the field types suitable for full text searching.

i managed to get it to work but it just returned full matches and not likes so ill have to try something else.

You can also try LIKE '%$Var%' Type. I hope that can Easily Solve your problem

Fulltext searching is for matches, as you say. Also I believe the default min length for a MATCH search is 4 characters, searching for dog (3 characters) doesn't work, but doggy (5 chars) will.

Look at lucene/solr if you want a decent search that will easily match things like doggies when people search for dogs. etc.

http://lucene.apache.org/solr/

Gordonrp, I second that.. I am using Solr, and setting up many clients on it who are doing full text search.. That goes for users of MySQL and MS SQL.. It's an awesome option.