MySQL query finding values in a comma separated string

Question

I have a field COLORS (varchar(50)) in a my table SHIRTS that contains a comma delimited string such as 1,2,5,12,15,. Each number repr

Answer 1

If the set of colors is more or less fixed, the most efficient and also most readable way would be to use string constants in your app and then use MySQL's SET type with FIND_IN_SET('red',colors) in your queries. When using the SET type with FIND_IN_SET, MySQL uses one integer to store all values and uses binary "and" operation to check for presence of values which is way more efficient than scanning a comma-separated string.

In SET('red','blue','green'), 'red' would be stored internally as 1, 'blue' would be stored internally as 2 and 'green' would be stored internally as 4. The value 'red,blue' would be stored as 3 (1|2) and 'red,green' as 5 (1|4).