MySQL text search example

I have a table called table1 with 3 columns, a, b, and c.

b is varchar(600), say, and I wish to return the int from column a, say.

Let's assume the term I am looking for is "This term".

What would a single complete example be with the basic syntax required to search for this phrase as above in b and return the respective a in MySQL as the Internet is totally unclear on this?

Basically, what would the mysql_query string look like for a text search?

$result = mysql_query("SELECT a FROM sometable WHERE b LIKE '%This term%'");

Depending on what you plan to do, MySQL Fulltext Indices might be interesting for you.

The following will look for 'This term' anywhere in b

SELECT a FROM table1 WHERE b LIKE('%This term%')

You could also just find records that start with 'This term'

SELECT a FROM table1 WHERE b LIKE('This term%')

The % operator is the wildcard in the like condition.

SELECT * FROM table1 
WHERE b LIKE '%This term%'