Question

I am using the following code:

include('sphinxapi.php');
$search = "John"
$s = new SphinxClient;
$s->SetServer("localhost", 9312);
$s->SetMatchMode(SPH_MATCH_EXTENDED2);
$s->SetSortMode(SPH_SORT_EXTENDED, 'name ASC');
$nameindex = $s->Query("$search");
echo $nameindex['total_found'];

This returns a blank page however without the SetSortMode it works fine and returns the number of results. No matter what I set the SetSortMode to it does not work. Any ideas as to why this would be?

I am indexing one column called name

Answer 1

You can’t sort by (normal) fields in Sphinx, only attributes, or fields marked with the sql_field_string setting (which creates an attribute of the same name). So you’ll need to either add an attribute with the same column, or use sql_field_string – they’re equivalent.

Also: I’ve removed the thinking-sphinx tag – you’re not using Ruby, and thus not the Thinking Sphinx library.