PHP full text search functionality using AND, OR and NOT operators

Question

Newbie question: I'm trying to implement a full text search on a search string using php and eloquent.

$searchstring = " (victim suspect) crime -covid";
$searchresult = RssItem::whereRaw("MATCH (description) AGAINST ('$searchstring' IN BOOLEAN MODE)")->get();

I want my users to be able to set a search string like this:

$searchstring = "(victim OR suspect) AND crime NOT covid";

Is there an easy way to convert user input to a boolean full text search string for mysql in php?

Answer 1

I've done it the following way:

$searchstring = '(victim OR suspect) AND crime NOT covid';
  $searchstring = str_replace(" OR ", ' ', $searchstring);
  $searchstring = str_replace(" AND ", ' +', $searchstring);
  $searchstring = str_replace(" NOT ", ' -', $searchstring);
  $searchstring = '+'.$searchstring;

  $searchresult = RssItem::whereRaw("MATCH (description) AGAINST ('$searchstring' IN BOOLEAN MODE)")->get();

But maybe there is a better way? :-)