Search text in fields in every table of a MySQL database

Question

I want to search in all fields from all tables of a MySQL database a given string, possibly using syntax as:

SELECT * FROM * WHERE * LIKE \'%stuff%\'
         


        

Answer 1

This solution
a) is only MySQL, no other language needed, and
b) returns SQL results, ready for processing!

#Search multiple database tables and/or columns
#Version 0.1 - JK 2014-01
#USAGE: 1. set the search term @search, 2. set the scope by adapting the WHERE clause of the `information_schema`.`columns` query
#NOTE: This is a usage example and might be advanced by setting the scope through a variable, putting it all in a function, and so on...

#define the search term here (using rules for the LIKE command, e.g % as a wildcard)
SET @search = '%needle%';

#settings
SET SESSION group_concat_max_len := @@max_allowed_packet;

#ini variable
SET @sql = NULL;

#query for prepared statement
SELECT
    GROUP_CONCAT("SELECT '",`TABLE_NAME`,"' AS `table`, '",`COLUMN_NAME`,"' AS `column`, `",`COLUMN_NAME`,"` AS `value` FROM `",TABLE_NAME,"` WHERE `",COLUMN_NAME,"` LIKE '",@search,"'" SEPARATOR "\nUNION\n") AS col
INTO @sql
FROM `information_schema`.`columns`
WHERE TABLE_NAME IN
(
    SELECT TABLE_NAME FROM `information_schema`.`columns`
    WHERE
        TABLE_SCHEMA IN ("my_database")
        && TABLE_NAME IN ("my_table1", "my_table2") || TABLE_NAME LIKE "my_prefix_%"
);

#prepare and execute the statement
PREPARE stmt FROM @sql;
EXECUTE stmt;
DEALLOCATE PREPARE stmt;