Yes, there is. The SQL gets a little squirrely and it takes longer to execute, but it shouldn't be too bad. You're also going to have to specify your columns for this. Something along the lines of: 
SELECT foo_count.num
      ,foo.first_col
      ,foo.second_col
  FROM foo
      ,(SELECT description
              ,COUNT(*) as num
          FROM foo
         WHERE description LIKE '%?%'
         GROUP BY description
        ) foo_count
 WHERE foo.description = foo_count.description
 ORDER BY 1,2,3
LIMIT ?, ?

[download]

This is untested, but should work. Essentially, you're using the results of a search as a table for your second search. It's advanced SQL, but not absolutely nuts.

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Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.

In reply to Re: Re: Inefficient search algorithm? by dragonchild
in thread Inefficient search algorithm? by ruhk

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