mysql is array in multiple columns

Question

I have a string in the form $string = 'London,Paris,Birmingham' and I want to search multiple columns for occurences of these values.

For example WHERE events.name, events.cities, events.counties IN (".($string).")

Can someone recommend me a simple and short way of doing something like this.

Answer 1

Use the FIND_IN_SET function:

WHERE (   FIND_IN_SET(events.name, mysql_real_escape_string($string)) > 0
       OR FIND_IN_SET(events.cities, mysql_real_escape_string($string)) > 0
       OR FIND_IN_SET(events.counties, mysql_real_escape_string($string)) > 0)