How Can I Order MySQL Search Results by 'Best Match' Based on Search Term Position?

Ordering MySQL Results Based on "Best Match"

In this scenario, the goal is to enhance a MySQL live search query to prioritize results where the search term occurs earlier in the word.

Currently, the query sorts results alphabetically:

SELECT word FROM words WHERE word LIKE '%searchstring%' ORDER BY word ASC

To achieve the desired sorting, we can introduce conditional logic to differentiate between the positions of the search term in the results.

Sorting by Start, Middle, End of Word

To arrange results where matches at the start of the word are prioritized, we can use the following query:

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 query assigns weights to each result: 1 for perfect matches starting with the search term, 3 for matches anywhere in the word, and 2 otherwise. These weights determine the sorting order.

Sorting by Position of Matched String

If we want to order results based on the exact position of the match, we can leverage the LOCATE function:

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

This query calculates the position of the search term within each result and sorts accordingly.

Handling Ties

In cases where multiple results have the same score or position, we can introduce a secondary sorting criterion:

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

By replacing with a relevant field (e.g., word frequency), we can break ties and sort the results further.

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