Fuzzy Database Search 28.03.08
I would like to know what is involved in “Fuzzy” search on mysql. We have a database with ‘users’ and ’students’ and we want the user to be able to search on first and last name for either/both users and students. But it should allow for imperfect spellings, nicknames, etc, and should return results with best match first.
This will be implemented in PHP with MySQL. However, we’re not looking for the programming/implementation. We’re just looking to understand what’s involved. Also, we’re not looking for a very sophisticated solution. We’re looking for something that’s reasonably simple and practical, with low maintenance overhead, and works reasonably well. The actual implementation will be a separate project.
So, you should have experience implementing a fuzzy search, and you should have good communication skills to explain the best way to implement it. We would like to get a short sample of your written communication before hiring.
The outcome of this project would be a one or two page report, and of course we would answer any questions you may have before you write the report. The report should include all the components of the project, including implementation and operations/maintenance, and the potential impact of the new functionality on the database.
