Database Relevancy Search

Anon

Does anyone have an idea of how I could do I database relevancy search. It would be similar to a search engine where the most relevant search results would be returned. However, it would be for a forum, and it would be searching a database. You would type in a keyword and it would bring back the posts in order of those that contained the word the most. I'd also like to do a percentage for relevancy. Does anyone have any code I could look at or an idea of the best algorithm for this? Thanks for any help!

Anon

All databases have miscellaneous string-functions for comparison.
Mysql : SOUNDEX() f.e.
SQL- Usage of such functions is
SELECT SOUNDEX(...) AS score,... FROM Table ORDER BY SCORE DESC.

Check out freshmeat.net for searchengines.
There are many opensource search engines in php,database....

Examples: http://www.mnogosearch.com/
www.htdig.org

Regards
Ingo

Anon

MySQL V3.23.23 and up has a fulltext function where you can search one or more columns with a fulltext search. It sorts the results according to relevance. Version 4.x will also have boolean search and is due to be released sometime this year, I think.

Visit http://www.mysql.com and take a look at the online manual around topic ~6.5. there you should find information on the fulltext capabilities of MySQL.