Fine-tune the search

Which method do you use?

[tyrone04]

I usually program my search using the "LIKE %$search%" method and I find the results to be not so good. I've tried using regular expression as well as full-text searching and they all have their pros and cons. I would like to know what method people here use to program their search in and find that method to be useful?

[R e b r a n d t]

I think it very depends on *what* you are searching in *what kind* of data. Is there a keyword search in a text field or something else?