What are some best practices for creating efficient search queries in PHP that search across multiple tables?

When creating efficient search queries in PHP that search across multiple tables, it is important to use JOIN statements to connect the tables together based on their relationships. This allows for a single query to retrieve data from multiple tables in one go, rather than making separate queries for each table. Additionally, using indexes on the columns being searched can help improve query performance.

// Example code snippet for creating an efficient search query across multiple tables in PHP using JOIN statements

$searchTerm = $_GET['search'];

$query = "SELECT * FROM table1
          JOIN table2 ON table1.id = table2.table1_id
          WHERE table1.column LIKE '%$searchTerm%'
          OR table2.column LIKE '%$searchTerm%'";

// Execute the query and process the results