Re: Is there a way to optimize this query?

[Sergey Petrunya]

There are two possible sources of ineficiency here:
First, are you sure the WHERE part should be (indenting the condition as it was specified in your post)
where
(
i.item_title like '%$input%' or
(c.ident_name like '%$input%' and
(c.cid = ic.cid and ic.cdid = i.cdid)
)
)
and not
where
(
(i.item_title like '%$input%' or c.ident_name like '%$input%')
and c.cid = ic.cid and ic.cdid = i.cdid
)

Second is that LIKE '%string%' causes full table scan to be performed.
Please see the thread http://forums.mysql.com/read.php?24,13397,13397#msg-13397
for possible solution.

Sergey Petrunia, Software Developer
MySQL AB, www.mysql.com
My blog: http://s.petrunia.net/blog