PHP - MYSQL Search Engine - Matching specific letters from a word in a search box

I am trying to make search engine to match some specific letter开发者_StackOverflow中文版s from the end of the word I input in a search box, or the first few letters in the the beginning of a word, that I input in the search box.

So, I have a search engine, a MySql database containing a simple table ID and WORDS. When I hit search button, I want the result to display me the words in WORDS column, matching the end of the word I am searching. I want to be able to choose how many letters to match my search from some radio buttons or drop-down (1, 2, 3, 4) last letters.

You can do this with a database query using MySQL's 'LIKE' operator

SELECT words FROM your_table WHERE word LIKE 'foo%'

for words beginning with 'foo' or

SELECT words FROM your_table WHERE word LIKE '%foo'

for ending with 'foo'. The % is a wildcard, matching any other characters in the word.

Use PHP's substr function to make the string the right length and then add the % at the beginning or end depending on whether you want words ending or beginning with the characters.