SQL LIKE % inside array

In case of standard SQL, it would be:

SELECT * FROM users WHERE name LIKE '%tom%' 
                       OR name LIKE '%smith%' 
                       OR name LIKE '%larry%';

Since you're using MySQL you can use RLIKE (a.k.a. REGEXP)

SELECT * FROM users WHERE name RLIKE 'tom|smith|larry';

You can't. It'll have to be a chained field like %..% or field like %..% or .... A where ... in clause only does extract string matches, with no support for wildcards.

$sql = array('0'); // Stop errors when $words is empty

foreach($words as $word){
    $sql[] = 'name LIKE %'.$word.'%'
}

$sql = 'SELECT * FROM users WHERE '.implode(" OR ", $sql);

---

Edit: code for CakePHP:

foreach($words as $word){
    $sql[] = array('Model.name LIKE' => '%'.$word.'%');
}

$this->Model->find('all', array(
    'conditions' => array(
        'OR' => $sql
    )
));

Read up on this stuff: http://book.cakephp.org/1.3/en/view/1030/Complex-Find-Conditions