mysql - Strip special characters and space of a DB column to compare in rails -

i have 4 types of last_name:

• "camp bell"
• "campbell"
• "campbelljr."
• "camp bell jr."

now, in rails when user searched it's last name camp bell, want show 4 records. so, tried:

rails

stripped_name = params[last_name].gsub(/\w/, '') #=> "campbell"  user.where("lower(replace(last_name, '/\w/', '')) ?", "#{stripped_name}%") 

give me 2 records following last_name:

• "campbell"
• "campbelljr."

i guess, because, mysql replace not working correctly regex.

any ideas?

edit

guys, sorry confusion. idea strip off special characters including space. i'm trying use \w regex.

for example, input can be: camp~bell... but, should still fetch result.

you can check both stripped_name without space , ones include both names seperated space this.

stripped_name = params[last_name].gsub(/\w/, '') split_names = params[last_name].split(" ")  user.where('name ? or (name ? , name ?)', "%#{stripped_name}%", "%#{split_names[0]}%", "%#{split_names[1]}%") 

next step search complete array of split names not first two.