What are the benefits of using MySQL's full-text search capabilities over manual search string manipulation in PHP?

Using MySQL's full-text search capabilities can provide faster and more accurate search results compared to manual search string manipulation in PHP. MySQL's full-text search functionality allows for advanced search features like stemming, relevance ranking, and boolean search operators, which can greatly enhance the search experience for users. Additionally, utilizing MySQL's full-text search can offload the search processing workload from PHP, leading to better performance and scalability of the application.

// Example code snippet using MySQL's full-text search capabilities
$searchTerm = "example search query";
$query = "SELECT * FROM products WHERE MATCH(product_name, description) AGAINST ('$searchTerm' IN BOOLEAN MODE)";
// Execute the query and process the results