The SQL Guru Answers your Questions...
Today's question comes from Mike:
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Hello Mr. Guru. Quick question.
How do I rank search results?
eg.
Search for "the dog"
Result
100% - the dog bla bla bla
50% - a dog bla bla bla
25% - and og bla bla bla
Is there a SQL function that does this or do I have to do it manually?
If manually, how would I sort it?
Thanks!
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There are a pair of sql functions that you may want to look at: SOUNDEX and
DIFFERENCE. SOUNDEX phonetically encodes a string and returns the coded
value. The more useful function, DIFFERENCE, phonetically compares two
strings and returns a value from 0(not at all similar) to 4(very similar).
That's about in in pre SQL 7.0. Starting with SQL 7.0, I'd recommend using
the full-text indexing features. You can do a full text search and returned
ranked results, similar to what you have above. Look in SQL Server books
online... there's more than enough there to get ya started.
Sean
