MySQL - Efficient search with partial word match and relevancy score (FULLTEXT)

Question

How can I do a MySQL search which will match partial words but also provide accurate relevancy sorting?

SELECT name, MATCH(name) AGAINST (\'math*\' IN BOOLEA         


        

Answer 1

I obtained a good solution in this (somewhat) duplicate question a year later:

MySQL - How to get search results with accurate relevance

Answer 2

The new InnoDB full-text search feature in MySQL 5.6 helps in this case. I use the following query:

SELECT MATCH(column) AGAINST('(word1* word2*) ("word1 word1")' IN BOOLEAN MODE) score, id, column 
FROM table
having score>0
ORDER BY score 
DESC limit 10;

where ( ) groups words into a subexpression. The first group has like word% meaning; the second looks for exact phrase. The score is returned as float.