I have a field which contains the following: 8, 28, 38, 48
How do I filter for just one number, for example 8?

For example
SELECT id_img
, theme_img
FROM image_img
WHERE theme_img
LIKE '%8%'

Does not work!

Nick

are you saying that different rows might have those different values?

or are you saying that a single row might have a value consisting of four numbers with comma delimiters?

A single field in a singel row. Right or wrong I didn't want to have a column for each theme, or medium etc. I implode the values from an array of checkboxes into a single string like the one above, 8, 28, 38, 48. I could go backan use the words labels instead of the ids and the LIKE might work better.

My goal was a lean database we are hoping for a lot of business. A lot of donations to non-profits.

whether or not your goal was a lean database, you've munged up your queries

using words instead of ids is only marginally better, but still terrible

there's a reason first normal form was invented

You shuld use query like this:

SELECT id_img
, theme_img
FROM image_img
WHERE theme_img
LIKE '%8,%'

Notice I added comma symbol after number "8". This will work except the last number, couse in your table you don't have comma at the end. So before you can use query above, first you need to update this field by adding one comma at the end.

actually, if you're going to do it that way, here's the sql --

WHERE CONCAT(',' , theme_img , ',') LIKE '%,8,%'

it's still going to result in a table scan, which will not scale, i.e. the more rows in the table, the slower the query

Nick, what does not work? Are you getting all the rows that have %8% and you only want the row with the number 8? Are you getting an error, meaning your column is defined as a number and your LIKE statement will not work? We can sit here and throw all kinds of stuff out to you, but most will not be helpful.
Dave

it returns too many results, including incorrect ones

theme_img
1,5,8,9,37
2,23,48,94
3,8,18,28

he's searching for "8" and will get back the first and third rows (correct) but also the second row (incorrect)

this would have been obvious if you had read all his posts