Adding a fulltext index

Indexes are an important means of making sure a database performs well and responds quickly when queried. However, they can only live up to their full potential when applied to well-structured data. Unfortunately, not all information we would like to query can be made to fit into regular relational database tables and columns.

A prime example of this is free text. It does not follow any well-defined structure and does not lend itself to the principle by which regular indexes work. For example, a fulltext index allows querying for search terms no matter where in the indexed column they occur and not only at the beginning of the column as would be the case with normal indexes.

Fulltext indexes require you to use a special syntax to express your queries. Querying with the LIKE keyword will not be accelerated by a fulltext index. In this recipe you will learn how to create a fulltext index on an existing database column. For the purpose of this example, we assume a fictional...