Best way to query

[mark_thurston]

I have a database that contains a large group of phrases. It has a very simple structure, just an auto ID field and a phrase.

What I want to do is to check words in a sentence to see if they match an existing phrase. I have thought of a way to do this, but was wondering if anyone had a better idea.

Example sentence: "This is a test"

Method - Do a LIKE on every word in the sentence:
- Select * from tblPhrases where phrase Like "This %"
- Select * from tblPhrases where phrase Like "is %"
- Select * from tblPhrases where phrase Like "a %"
- Select * from tblPhrases where phrase Like "test %"

Any help is appreciated.

[jkoopmann]

depends on your requirements for a match.

in your SQL, the phrase must begin with the words given. If you want to check for existance anywhere in the phrase you need something like :
Select * from tblPhrases where phrase Like "%This %"

also, it is more efficient to check for likeness of all words at the same time and not individual select statements:
Select * from tblPhrases where phrase Like "%This %"
and phrase Like "%is %"
and phrase Like "%a %"
and phrase Like "%test %"

[mark_thurston]

The phrase needs to be exactly the same as what is contained in the sentence (ignoring case).

Is there a way to do this other than using the LIKE command? My fear is that even with an index on the phrase, it will still be fairly slow.

Thanks.

[jkoopmann]

if you need it to be exactly like the statement then your sql is:
Select * from tblPhrases where phrase = "This is a test"

an index will speed this up but may be a bit on the large side depending on the number of rows in the table.

[mark_thurston]

So to pull the phrase or phrases from the sentence I would need to do either the LIKE, or something like this:

- select * from tblPhrases where phrase="this is a test" or phrase="this is a" or phrase="this is" or phrase="this" or ...

Is this correct?

[jkoopmann]

yup,
give it a try and make sure that is what you need.