How can PHP developers optimize search queries to efficiently search across multiple tables and fields in a database?

When searching across multiple tables and fields in a database, PHP developers can optimize search queries by using JOIN statements to combine tables and WHERE clauses to filter results. By structuring the query efficiently and utilizing indexes on the relevant columns, developers can improve the performance of the search operation.

<?php
// Connect to the database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "database";
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Search query across multiple tables and fields
$sql = "SELECT * FROM table1
        JOIN table2 ON table1.id = table2.table1_id
        WHERE table1.field1 LIKE '%search_term%' OR table2.field2 LIKE '%search_term%'";

$result = $conn->query($sql);

// Process the search results
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
    while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
        // Output search results
        echo "Field1: " . $row["field1"] . " - Field2: " . $row["field2"] . "<br>";
    }
} else {
    echo "No results found";
}

// Close the database connection
$conn->close();
?>