INSTR vs. LIKE in MySQL: Which is Faster for Exact String Matches?

INSTR vs LIKE: Performance Comparison

The performance efficiency of INSTR and LIKE when testing for string presence in MySQL columns has been a subject of debate. Which one is faster and why?

Both INSTR and LIKE can be used for this purpose, but their performance characteristics differ. Generally, INSTR is more efficient for exact string matches, while LIKE is better for pattern-based searches.

However, in the specific case of testing if a string exists in a MySQL column, the results of our tests show that INSTR and LIKE perform equally well. In both cases, full-table scans are executed, resulting in slow performance for large tables.

The implication of this is that neither INSTR nor LIKE is the optimal choice for such use cases. Fulltext searches offer significantly faster performance by utilizing indexes. Nevertheless, if an indexed column exists and only a prefix search is required, LIKE with a suffix wildcard can be a faster option.

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