How to search multiple columns with priority in MySQL?

Question

I currently have a PHP function (codeigniter) which takes a query string (from post), and returns relevant MySQL rows, like this:

$term = $this->input->post("query");
$rows = $this->db->query("SELECT id, title as 'desc' , abbreviation , etc FROM shows WHERE abbreviation LIKE '%".$term."%' OR title LIKE '%".$term."%' OR etc LIKE '%".$term."%'  LIMIT 10; ")->result_array();

this works, but lets say my table is like this :

id  title                    abbreviation
--  ----------------------   ------------
1   The Big Bang Theory      TBBT
2   How I Met Your Mother    HMYM
3   a show called tbbt hmym  ASCTM

Now, when the user searches for tbbt, it returns 3rd row first. But I want the abbreviation to be the "main" parameter.

So if abbreviation matches, return it first, then look for the title column.

I think I can do it with PHP, like this:

// pseudo-code : 
$abbreviation_matches = result("bla bla WHERE abbreviation LIKE term AND NOT title like term");
$title_matches = result("bla bla WHERE NOT abbreviation LIKE term AND title LIKE term");
$result = append($abbreviation_matches , $title_matches);

But I'm afraid this will not be so efficient, since it involves 2 separate SQL queries. So is there a more efficient way to do this? Preferrably in one query ?

And the real case is with 4 columns, but only one column has priority, so the other ones are not important in order.

Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

It could be one of the solutions:

SELECT id, desc, abbreviation, etc FROM
( 
   SELECT 1 AS rnk,  id, title as 'desc' , abbreviation , etc FROM shows 
   WHERE abbreviation LIKE '%".$term."%'
   UNION 
   SELECT 2 AS rnk,  id, title as 'desc' , abbreviation , etc FROM shows 
   WHERE title LIKE '%".$term."%' 
) tab
ORDER BY rnk
LIMIT 10;

Or you can achieve the same by the following:

SELECT  id, desc, abbreviation, etc FROM
(
    SELECT CASE WHEN abbreviation LIKE '%".$term."%' THEN 1 ELSE 2 END As rnk,
    id, title AS desc, abbreviation, etc 
    FROM shows 
    WHERE abbreviation LIKE '%".$term."%' 
    OR title LIKE '%".$term."%' 
) tab
 ORDER BY rnk
 LIMIT 10;