When should you use full-text indexing?

Question

We have a whole bunch of queries that \"search\" for clients, customers, etc. You can search by first name, email, etc. We\'re using LIKE statements in the following manner:

Answer 1

It will depend upon your DBMS. I believe that most systems will not take advantage of the full-text index unless you use the full-text functions. (e.g. MATCH/AGAINST in mySQL or FREETEXT/CONTAINS in MS SQL)

Here is a good article on when, why, and how to use full-text indexing in SQL Server: Understanding SQL Server Full-Text Indexing