Order MySQL search results by how closely they mat

[Anon]

How do you make search results come up in order of how closely the results match the key word? Example: If someone searches for “Name Server”, how would you make results with “Name Server” come up first and then results with “Name” and then results with “Server”?

[Anon]

Have a look at the MySQL manual, read about the "IF" clause.

You can build an IF clause to return a surtain value, based on wether or not
something matches, like:

SELECT IF(Name="Name",1,2);

This returns 1 if Name="Name", and 2 if Name does not equal "Name".

You can put these IF statements in the ORDER BY or GROUP BY clause (or even inside other IF statemenets) to arrange your answers.

SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY IF(Name="Name",1,2);
this will return the rows where Name="Name" first, followed by the rows where Name is something else.

Be carefull, this can be a very expensive (read: slow) operation to perform,
so make sure you have the proper indexes etc.

[Anon]

you might be able to contrive something from SOUNDEX(str), too. see manual section 7.4.10 on string functions (http://www.mysql.com/documentation/mysql/bychapter/manual_Reference.html#String_syntax)