Checking multiple fields for displaying lists.

The system allows us to put in WHERE statements, ie:
$options['where'] = 'offering_type_1 = "Generations"'; // (ADVANCED) Additional MySQL WHERE conditions. Example: 'fieldname = "value"'

I would like for the system to check ALL fieldnames for the information in quotes, and display all the records that would match. Is there a PHP/MySQL wildcard that can do this?

I checked in with a programming friend who made the following (unsuccessful) recommendation:

you can not use wildcards in fieldnames.
You can use the OR statement in the query.
Example: $options['where'] = ' offering_type_1 = "Generations" OR fieldname2 = "Generations" OR fieldname 3= "Generations" ';

I replied with:

I gave the "OR" statement a try, but it's not pulling all of the information properly. It only reads the first option and ignores the rest.

He then made the following (unsuccessful) recommendation:

$options['where'] = ' ( offering_type_1 = "Generations" OR fieldname2 = "Generations" OR fieldname 3= "Generations" ) ';

I replied with:

That didn't work either. I tried it with the quotes as listed, and it gave me an error. When I put each option in its own set of brackets, it wouldn't render the page or return an error.

Is there a way to check multiple or all fields in a table to display in a list?

Thanks,
T