This should ideally be done with the help of sql server full text search if using.
However, if you can't get that working on your DB for some reason, here is a performance intensive solution :-
-- table to search in
CREATE TABLE dbo.myTable
(
myTableId int NOT NULL IDENTITY (1, 1),
code varchar(200) NOT NULL,
description varchar(200) NOT NULL -- this column contains the values we are going to search in
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO
-- function to split space separated search string into individual words
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fnSplit] (@StringInput nvarchar(max),
@Delimiter nvarchar(1))
RETURNS @OutputTable TABLE (
id nvarchar(1000)
)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @String nvarchar(100);
WHILE LEN(@StringInput) > 0
BEGIN
SET @String = LEFT(@StringInput, ISNULL(NULLIF(CHARINDEX(@Delimiter, @StringInput) - 1, -1),
LEN(@StringInput)));
SET @StringInput = SUBSTRING(@StringInput, ISNULL(NULLIF(CHARINDEX
(
@Delimiter, @StringInput
),
0
), LEN
(
@StringInput)
)
+ 1, LEN(@StringInput));
INSERT INTO @OutputTable (id)
VALUES (@String);
END;
RETURN;
END;
GO
-- this is the search script which can be optionally converted to a stored procedure /function
declare @search varchar(max) = 'infection upper acute genito'; -- enter your search string here
-- the searched string above should give rows containing the following
-- infection in upper side with acute genitointestinal tract
-- acute infection in upper teeth
-- acute genitointestinal pain
if (len(trim(@search)) = 0) -- if search string is empty, just return records ordered alphabetically
begin
select 1 as Priority ,myTableid, code, Description from myTable order by Description
return;
end
declare @splitTable Table(
wordRank int Identity(1,1), -- individual words are assinged priority order (in order of occurence/position)
word varchar(200)
)
declare @nonWordTable Table( -- table to trim out auxiliary verbs, prepositions etc. from the search
id varchar(200)
)
insert into @nonWordTable values
('of'),
('with'),
('at'),
('in'),
('for'),
('on'),
('by'),
('like'),
('up'),
('off'),
('near'),
('is'),
('are'),
(','),
(':'),
(';')
insert into @splitTable
select id from dbo.fnSplit(@search,' '); -- this function gives you a table with rows containing all the space separated words of the search like in this e.g., the output will be -
-- id
-------------
-- infection
-- upper
-- acute
-- genito
delete s from @splitTable s join @nonWordTable n on s.word = n.id; -- trimming out non-words here
declare @countOfSearchStrings int = (select count(word) from @splitTable); -- count of space separated words for search
declare @highestPriority int = POWER(@countOfSearchStrings,3);
with plainMatches as
(
select myTableid, @highestPriority as Priority from myTable where Description like @search -- exact matches have highest priority
union
select myTableid, @highestPriority-1 as Priority from myTable where Description like @search + '%' -- then with something at the end
union
select myTableid, @highestPriority-2 as Priority from myTable where Description like '%' + @search -- then with something at the beginning
union
select myTableid, @highestPriority-3 as Priority from myTable where Description like '%' + @search + '%' -- then if the word falls somewhere in between
),
splitWordMatches as( -- give each searched word a rank based on its position in the searched string
-- and calculate its char index in the field to search
select myTable.myTableid, (@countOfSearchStrings - s.wordRank) as Priority, s.word,
wordIndex = CHARINDEX(s.word, myTable.Description) from myTable join @splitTable s on myTable.Description like '%'+ s.word + '%'
-- and not exists(select myTableid from plainMatches p where p.myTableId = myTable.myTableId) -- need not look into myTables that have already been found in plainmatches as they are highest ranked
-- this one takes a long time though, so commenting it, will have no impact on the result
),
matchingRowsWithAllWords as (
select myTableid, count(myTableid) as myTableCount from splitWordMatches group by(myTableid) having count(myTableid) = @countOfSearchStrings
)
, -- trim off the CTE here if you don't care about the ordering of words to be considered for priority
wordIndexRatings as( -- reverse the char indexes retrived above so that words occuring earlier have higher weightage
-- and then normalize them to sequential values
select s.myTableid, Priority, word, ROW_NUMBER() over (partition by s.myTableid order by wordindex desc) as comparativeWordIndex
from splitWordMatches s join matchingRowsWithAllWords m on s.myTableId = m.myTableId
)
,
wordIndexSequenceRatings as ( -- need to do this to ensure that if the same set of words from search string is found in two rows,
-- their sequence in the field value is taken into account for higher priority
select w.myTableid, w.word, (w.Priority + w.comparativeWordIndex + coalesce(sequncedPriority ,0)) as Priority
from wordIndexRatings w left join
(
select w1.myTableid, w1.priority, w1.word, w1.comparativeWordIndex, count(w1.myTableid) as sequncedPriority
from wordIndexRatings w1 join wordIndexRatings w2 on w1.myTableId = w2.myTableId and w1.Priority > w2.Priority and w1.comparativeWordIndex>w2.comparativeWordIndex
group by w1.myTableid, w1.priority,w1.word, w1.comparativeWordIndex
)
sequencedPriority on w.myTableId = sequencedPriority.myTableId and w.Priority = sequencedPriority.Priority
),
prioritizedSplitWordMatches as ( -- this calculates the cumulative priority for a field value
select w1.myTableId, sum(w1.Priority) as OverallPriority from wordIndexSequenceRatings w1 join wordIndexSequenceRatings w2 on w1.myTableId = w2.myTableId
where w1.word <> w2.word group by w1.myTableid
),
completeSet as (
select myTableid, priority from plainMatches -- get plain matches which should be highest ranked
union
select myTableid, OverallPriority as priority from prioritizedSplitWordMatches -- get ranked split word matches (which are ordered based on word rank in search string and sequence)
),
maximizedCompleteSet as( -- set the priority of a field value = maximum priority for that field value
select myTableid, max(priority) as Priority from completeSet group by myTableId
)
select priority, myTable.myTableid , code, Description from maximizedCompleteSet m join myTable on m.myTableId = myTable.myTableId
order by Priority desc, Description -- order by priority desc to get highest rated items on top
--offset 0 rows fetch next 50 rows only -- optional paging