How Can I Order MySQL Search Results by 'Best Match'?

Ordering MySQL Results by "Best Match"

When searching a database table with a live search feature, it's often desirable to order the results in a way that prioritizes the best matches. By default, a simple query like the one provided may not effectively order the results based on the starting position of the search string.

To achieve a more accurate "best match" ordering, consider the following options:

Ordering Matches by Starting Position

If the goal is to sort results with the matched string occurring at the beginning as the highest priority, the query can be modified as follows:

SELECT word
FROM words
WHERE word LIKE '%searchstring%'
ORDER BY
  CASE
    WHEN word LIKE 'searchstring%' THEN 1
    WHEN word LIKE '%searchstring' THEN 3
    ELSE 2
  END

This will prioritize matches that begin with the search string (assigned a value of 1), followed by matches that contain the string (assigned a value of 3), and finally matches where the string occurs at any other position (assigned a value of 2).

Ordering Matches by Position

Alternatively, if the goal is to sort results based on the position of the matched string within the word, the query can use the LOCATE function:

SELECT word
FROM words
WHERE word LIKE '%searchstring%'
ORDER BY LOCATE('searchstring', word)

This query will order the results based on the index of the first occurrence of the search string within each word.

Breaking Ties

In scenarios where multiple words match the search criteria equally, it may be desirable to introduce a tie-breaker to further refine the ordering. This can be achieved by adding an additional ORDER BY clause:

SELECT word
FROM words
WHERE word LIKE '%searchstring%'
ORDER BY <whatever>, word

The placeholder can be replaced with any additional criteria used for ranking, such as word length, alphabetical order, or a custom metric.

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