Searching within a Comma-Delimited List in MySQL

Your MySQL table contains a field with a comma-separated list of IDs. You wish to search within this field using a query like SELECT ... WHERE field LIKE '%1%'. However, this query matches many entries due to the overlapping IDs.

To address this issue, consider the FIND_IN_SET function:

SELECT ... WHERE FIND_IN_SET('1', field)

The FIND_IN_SET function takes two arguments: the string you're searching for and the comma-separated list. It returns the position of the string within the list, or 0 if not found.

Using this function, your query can precisely locate IDs within the comma-separated list, regardless of their position. This will provide you with more accurate search results and avoid the issue of matching entries due to overlapping IDs.