How can I get the number of times a specific word appears in a column with MySQL?

For this, you can use COUNT() function. Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable
   -> (
   -> EmployeeId int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
   -> EmployeeName varchar(100)
   -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.62 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable(EmployeeName) values('John');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.21 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable(EmployeeName) values('Carol');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.17 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable(EmployeeName) values('David');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable(EmployeeName) values('Carol');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable(EmployeeName) values('Carol');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.29 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable(EmployeeName) values('Bob');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.22 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable(EmployeeName) values('Sam');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.12 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

Output

This will produce the following output −

+------------+--------------+
| EmployeeId | EmployeeName |
+------------+--------------+
|          1 | John         |
|          2 | Carol        |
|          3 | David        |
|          4 | Carol        |
|          5 | Carol        |
|          6 | Bob          |
|          7 | Sam          |
+------------+--------------+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to get the number of times a specific word appears in MySQL. Here, we are finding the occurrences of Employee “Carol” −

mysql> select EmployeeName,count(EmployeeId) as Occurrence from DemoTable where
EmployeeName='Carol';

Output

This will produce the following output −

+--------------+------------+
| EmployeeName | Occurrence |
+--------------+------------+
| Carol        | 3          |
+--------------+------------+
1 row in set (0.05 sec)