Home/ Questions/Q 7446109
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-29T12:13:27+00:00

I am using Sphinx Search on a website to keep track of various table

  • 0

I am using Sphinx Search on a website to keep track of various table entries. These entries contain a date component and are less relevant after their data has been passed.

How can I have Sphinx assign more weight to results that match the search criteria (e.g. keyword search) and then assign less weight to those results that have a date in the past but still meet the search criteria? The illustration below should help to convey my needs:

Table containing data to be searched:

--------- ------------------ ---------
entry_id | title            | date    |
--------- ------------------ ---------
1         Tennis Racquet     12-10-2010
2         Basketball         03-24-2011
3         Tennis             03-03-2012
4         Skydiving          09-16-2012
5         Fishing            11-27-2012
6         Tennis Court       02-09-2013

Search Term:

tennis

Search Results:

  1. Entry 3 – Tennis
  2. Entry 6 – Tennis Court
  3. Entry 1 – Tennis Racquet – This is returned last because the date of this entry is before today’s date (2-9-2012), but it still matches the search term
Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I have found a way to do this using a variation of @mobius’ SetSortMode example.

    Instead of using SPH_SORT_EXTENDED, I used SPH_SORT_EXPR along with the expression below:

    $cl->SetSortMode ( SPH_SORT_EXPR, 
        " @weight + ( -1000000000/(" . time() . " - course_date_ts)) ");

    This allows me to weigh upcoming results higher, then future results slightly lower, and finally old results last.

    The large number in the numerator is to correspond with the number of decimal places in the UNIX timestamp.

    • 0