Laravel Fuzzy Search

A powerful, zero-config fuzzy search package for Laravel with fluent API. Works with all major databases without external services.

Demo: laravel-fuzzy-search-demo - See the package in action!

Documentation: Installation • Quick Start • Algorithms • BM25 Index • Extended Syntax • Scout Driver • Performance • Compatibility • Upgrade v1→v2

Features

Category	Features
Core	Zero-config search • Fluent API • Eloquent & Query Builder support
Algorithms	Multiple fuzzy algorithms • Typo tolerance • Multi-word token search
Scoring	Field weighting • Relevance scoring • Prefix boosting • Partial match • Recency boost
Text Processing	Stop-word filtering • Synonym support • Language/locale awareness
Internationalization	Unicode support • Accent insensitivity • Multi-language
Results	Highlighted results • Custom scoring hooks • Debug/explain-score mode
Performance	BM25 inverted index • Async indexing (queue) • Redis/cache support
Pagination	Stable ranking • Cursor pagination • Offset pagination
Reliability	Fallback search strategy • DB-agnostic • Rate-limit friendly • SQL-injection safe
Configuration	Config file support • Per-model customization
Developer Tools	CLI indexing • Benchmark tools • Built-in test suite • Performance utilities
Smart Search	Autocomplete suggestions • "Did you mean" spell correction • Multi-model federation • Search analytics

Installation
Quick Start
Search Algorithms
Field Weighting & Scoring
Text Processing
Result Presentation
Performance & Indexing
BM25 Inverted Index
Extended Search Syntax
Scout Driver
Pagination
Reliability & Safety
Events
Configuration
CLI Tools
Performance & Scaling
Algorithm × Database Compatibility
Testing
Requirements

Installation

composer require ashiqfardus/laravel-fuzzy-search

That's it! Zero configuration required. Start searching immediately.

Optionally publish the config file:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=fuzzy-search-config

If you plan to use the BM25 inverted index (recommended for 10k+ rows), also run:

php artisan migrate

Upgrading from v1.x? There are breaking changes — result rankings and _score values may shift. Run the scanner to find affected code, then follow the full guide.
composer require ashiqfardus/laravel-fuzzy-search
php artisan migrate
php artisan fuzzy-search:upgrade-v1   # scans your app/ for v1-era API usage
→ Full upgrade guide

Quick Start

Zero-Config Search

// Just add the trait and search!
use Ashiqfardus\LaravelFuzzySearch\Traits\Searchable;

class User extends Model
{
    use Searchable;
}

// Search immediately - auto-detects searchable columns
$users = User::search('john')->get();

How auto-detection works: The package automatically detects common column names in this priority order:

name, title (weight: 10)
email, username (weight: 8)
first_name, last_name (weight: 7)
description, content, body (weight: 5)
bio, summary, excerpt (weight: 3)
slug, sku, code (weight: 2-6)

If none of these exist, it falls back to the model's $fillable columns.

Manual Column Configuration

You can manually specify which columns to search and their weights:

class User extends Model
{
    use Searchable;

    // Option 1: Define in $searchable property
    protected array $searchable = [
        'columns' => [
            'name' => 10,        // Highest priority
            'email' => 5,        // Medium priority  
            'bio' => 1,          // Lowest priority
        ],
        'algorithm' => 'fuzzy',
        'typo_tolerance' => 2,
    ];
}

// Option 2: Specify at query time (merges with / adds to $searchable columns)
$users = User::search('john')
    ->searchIn(['name' => 10, 'email' => 5])
    ->get();

// Option 3: Simple array without weights (all get weight of 1)
$users = User::search('john')
    ->searchIn(['name', 'email', 'username'])
    ->get();

Fluent API

$users = User::search('john doe')
    ->searchIn(['name' => 10, 'email' => 5, 'bio' => 1])  // Field weighting
    ->typoTolerance(2)                                      // Allow 2 typos
    ->withSynonyms(['john' => ['jon', 'johnny']])          // Synonym support
    ->ignoreStopWords(['the', 'and', 'or'])                // Stop-word filtering
    ->accentInsensitive()                                   // Unicode/accent handling
    ->highlight('mark')                                     // Highlighted results
    ->withRelevance()                                       // Relevance scoring
    ->prefixBoost(2.0)                                      // Prefix boosting
    ->debugScore()                                          // Explain scoring
    ->paginate(15);

Eloquent & Query Builder Support

// Eloquent
User::whereFuzzy('name', 'john')->get();
User::whereFuzzyMultiple(['name', 'email'], 'john')->get();

// Query Builder
DB::table('users')->whereFuzzy('name', 'john')->get();
DB::table('products')->fuzzySearch(['title', 'description'], 'laptop')->get();

Search Algorithms

Available Algorithms

Algorithm	Best For	Typo Tolerance	Speed
`fuzzy`	General purpose	High	Fast
`levenshtein`	Strict typo matching	Configurable	Medium
`soundex`	Phonetic matching (English names)	Phonetic	Fast
`metaphone`	Phonetic matching (more accurate)	Phonetic	Fast
`trigram`	Similarity matching	High	Medium
`similar_text`	Percentage similarity	Medium	Medium
`simple` / `like`	Exact substring (LIKE)	None	Fastest

// Use specific algorithm
User::search('john')->using('levenshtein')->get();
User::search('stephen')->using('soundex')->get();  // Finds "Steven"
User::search('stephen')->using('metaphone')->get(); // More accurate phonetic — see setup below
User::search('laptop')->using('similar_text')->get(); // Percentage match

⚠️ metaphone requires one-time setup. Unlike the other algorithms, it searches against a precomputed {column}_metaphone shadow column. Calling using('metaphone') without it throws RuntimeException. Run the three commands shown in Shadow Columns once per searchable column.

Shadow Columns

Most algorithms compute their score on the fly during the SQL query. Metaphone is the exception — PHP's metaphone() function isn't available in SQL, so the package precomputes the phonetic code on every save and stores it in a sibling column.

For a users table with a name column, that means adding a name_metaphone column right next to it. Each row's name_metaphone holds the phonetic code (e.g. Stephen → STFN, Steven → STFN, Stefan → STFN). At search time, the query is a simple equality check against the precomputed code — fast, no per-row PHP calls.

Setup (one-time per column):

# 1. Generate the migration that adds the shadow column + index
php artisan fuzzy-search:add-shadow-column "App\Models\User" name --type=metaphone

# 2. Apply it
php artisan migrate

# 3. Backfill existing rows (the observer only writes on future saves)
php artisan fuzzy-search:rebuild "App\Models\User" --fresh

After this, the SearchableObserver keeps name_metaphone in sync automatically on every save() and update().

What gets generated:

// database/migrations/{timestamp}_add_name_metaphone_to_users_table.php
Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->string('name_metaphone')->nullable()->after('name');
    $table->index('name_metaphone');
});

Safety guards in the command:

The model must exist and be an Eloquent model.
The model must live in your app namespace — vendor/framework classes are rejected.
The column name is sanitized to [a-zA-Z0-9_] only — blocks SQL injection through the argument.

Typo Tolerance

// Auto typo tolerance based on word length
User::search('jonh')->get();  // Finds "John"

// Configure tolerance level
User::search('john')
    ->typoTolerance(1)  // Allow 1 typo
    ->get();

// Disable typo tolerance
User::search('john')
    ->typoTolerance(0)
    ->get();

Multi-Word Token Search

// Searches each word independently and combines results
User::search('john doe developer')
    ->tokenize()        // Split into tokens
    ->matchAll()        // All tokens must match (AND)
    ->get();

User::search('john doe developer')
    ->tokenize()
    ->matchAny()        // Any token can match (OR)
    ->get();

In-Memory Mode

use Ashiqfardus\LaravelFuzzySearch\Facades\FuzzySearch;

$matches = FuzzySearch::on($staticArray)->search('term')->searchIn(['name'])->get();

Supported methods: search, searchIn, take, skip, withRelevance, get. Any other SearchBuilder method (e.g. extended(), using(), preset(), paginate()) will throw a \BadMethodCallException to prevent silent failures.

Field Weighting & Scoring

Weighted Columns

User::search('john')
    ->searchIn([
        'name' => 10,       // Highest priority
        'username' => 8,
        'email' => 5,
        'bio' => 1,         // Lowest priority
    ])
    ->get();

Relevance Scoring

$users = User::search('john')
    ->withRelevance()
    ->get();

foreach ($users as $user) {
    echo "{$user->name}: {$user->_score}";
}

Prefix Boosting

// Boost results that start with the search term
User::search('john')
    ->prefixBoost(2.5)  // 2.5x score for prefix matches
    ->get();

Partial Match Support

User::search('joh')
    ->partialMatch()    // Matches "john", "johnny", "johanna"
    ->minMatchLength(2) // Minimum 2 characters
    ->get();

Custom Scoring Hooks

User::search('john')
    ->customScore(function ($item, $baseScore) {
        // Boost verified users
        if ($item->is_verified) {
            return $baseScore * 1.5;
        }
        // Penalize inactive users
        if (!$item->is_active) {
            return $baseScore * 0.5;
        }
        return $baseScore;
    })
    ->get();

Recency Boost

Boost newer records in search results:

// Recent records (within 30 days) get 1.5x score boost
User::search('john')
    ->boostRecent(1.5, 'created_at', 30)
    ->get();

// With defaults: 1.5x boost, created_at column, 30 days
User::search('john')
    ->boostRecent()
    ->get();

Search Suggestions / Autocomplete

Get autocomplete suggestions based on search term:

$suggestions = User::search('joh')
    ->searchIn(['name', 'email'])
    ->suggest(5);

// Returns: ['John', 'Johnny', 'Johanna', ...]

"Did You Mean" Spell Correction

Get alternative spellings when search has typos:

$alternatives = User::search('jonh')  // Typo
    ->searchIn(['name'])
    ->didYouMean(3);

// Returns: [
//     ['term' => 'john', 'distance' => 1, 'confidence' => 0.8],
//     ['term' => 'jon', 'distance' => 2, 'confidence' => 0.6],
// ]

Multi-Model Federation Search

Search across multiple models simultaneously:

use Ashiqfardus\LaravelFuzzySearch\FederatedSearch;

$results = FederatedSearch::across([User::class, Product::class, Post::class])
    ->search('laptop')
    ->using('fuzzy')
    ->limit(20)
    ->get();

// Each result includes _model_type and _model_class
foreach ($results as $result) {
    echo $result->_model_type;  // 'User', 'Product', or 'Post'
}

// Get grouped results
$grouped = FederatedSearch::across([User::class, Product::class])
    ->search('test')
    ->getGrouped();

// Get counts per model
$counts = FederatedSearch::across([User::class, Product::class])
    ->search('test')
    ->getCounts();  // ['User' => 5, 'Product' => 3]

Search Analytics

Get detailed analytics about your search configuration:

$analytics = User::search('john')
    ->searchIn(['name' => 10, 'email' => 5])
    ->using('levenshtein')
    ->typoTolerance(2)
    ->getAnalytics();

// Returns: [
//     'search_term' => 'john',
//     'algorithm' => 'levenshtein',
//     'columns_searched' => ['name', 'email'],
//     'typo_tolerance' => 2,
//     'tokenized' => false,
//     'stop_words_active' => false,
//     ...
// ]

Text Processing

Stop-Word Filtering

// Use default stop words
User::search('the quick brown fox')
    ->ignoreStopWords()
    ->get();

// Custom stop words
User::search('the quick brown fox')
    ->ignoreStopWords(['the', 'a', 'an', 'and', 'or', 'but'])
    ->get();

// Language-specific stop words
User::search('der schnelle braune fuchs')
    ->ignoreStopWords('de')  // German stop words
    ->get();

Synonym Support

User::search('laptop')
    ->withSynonyms([
        'laptop' => ['notebook', 'computer', 'macbook'],
        'phone' => ['mobile', 'cell', 'smartphone'],
    ])
    ->get();

// Or use synonym groups
User::search('laptop')
    ->synonymGroup(['laptop', 'notebook', 'computer'])
    ->get();

Language / Locale Awareness

User::search('john')
    ->locale('en')      // English
    ->get();

User::search('münchen')
    ->locale('de')      // German - handles umlauts
    ->get();

Unicode & Accent Insensitivity

// Matches "café", "cafe", "Café"
User::search('cafe')
    ->accentInsensitive()
    ->get();

// Matches "naïve", "naive"
User::search('naive')
    ->unicodeNormalize()
    ->get();

Result Presentation

Highlighted Results

$users = User::search('john')
    ->highlight('em')  // Wrap matches in <em> tags
    ->get();

foreach ($users as $user) {
    echo $user->_highlighted['name'];  // "Hello <em>John</em> Doe"
}

// Custom highlight
$users = User::search('john')
    ->highlight('<mark class="highlight">', '</mark>')
    ->get();

Debug / Explain-Score Mode

$users = User::search('john')
    ->debugScore()
    ->get();

foreach ($users as $user) {
    print_r($user->_debug);
    // [
    //     'term' => 'john',
    //     'column_scores' => ['name' => 100, 'email' => 25],
    //     'multipliers' => ['prefix_boost' => 2.0, 'weight' => 10],
    //     'final_score' => 250,
    //     'matched_algorithm' => 'fuzzy',
    // ]
}

Performance & Indexing

Async Indexing (Queue Support)

// In config/fuzzy-search.php
'indexing' => [
    'async' => true,
    'queue' => 'search-indexing',
    'chunk_size' => 500,
],

// Re-index a single model (dispatches IndexModelJob to queue)
use Ashiqfardus\LaravelFuzzySearch\Jobs\IndexModelJob;
IndexModelJob::dispatch(User::class, $user->id);

Redis / Cache Support

// Cache search results
User::search('john')
    ->cache(minutes: 60)
    ->get();

// Cache with custom key
User::search('john')
    ->cache(60, 'user-search-john')
    ->get();

// Use Redis for pattern storage
// In config/fuzzy-search.php
'cache' => [
    'enabled' => true,
    'driver' => 'redis',
    'ttl' => 3600,
],

BM25 Inverted Index

For large tables (10k+ rows), the BM25 inverted index provides ranked, fast results without scanning the full table.

How It Works

The indexing system has two parts:

Part 1 — One-time initial build. Run once after install (or after a schema change):

php artisan fuzzy-search:rebuild "App\Models\User" --fresh

Part 2 — Automatic incremental updates. After the initial build, every time a model is saved or deleted, the package dispatches a small queue job that re-indexes just that one row. No cron jobs or manual work needed.

The flow when a record is saved:

User::create(['name' => 'John'])
  → Eloquent fires 'saved' event
  → SearchableIndexingObserver dispatches IndexModelJob to queue
  → queue worker indexes the row (3 SQL queries)
  → 'john' is now in the index

Database Tables

Table	Purpose
`fuzzy_index_terms`	Term dictionary: unique terms + document frequency (used for `didYouMean()`)
`fuzzy_index_postings`	Postings: term → model mapping with term frequency
`fuzzy_index_meta`	BM25 normalization: total docs + avg document length per model
`fuzzy_index_documents`	Per-document length cache for O(1) BM25 scoring

Production Setup

Step 1 — Run migrations:

php artisan migrate

Step 2 — Enable indexing in config:

// config/fuzzy-search.php
'indexing' => [
    'enabled'          => true,       // must be true or saves are never indexed
    'async'            => true,       // true = queued (recommended for production)
    'queue'            => 'indexing', // dedicated queue keeps indexing isolated
    'chunk_size'       => 500,
    'max_tokens_per_doc' => 5000,     // security cap: prevents index poisoning
],

Step 3 — Declare searchable columns on your model:

use Ashiqfardus\LaravelFuzzySearch\Traits\Searchable;

class User extends Model
{
    use Searchable;

    protected array $searchable = [
        'columns' => [
            'name'  => 10,
            'email' => 5,
            'bio'   => 2,
        ],
    ];
}

Step 4 — Build the initial index:

# For small tables (< 50k rows)
php artisan fuzzy-search:rebuild "App\Models\User" --fresh

# For large tables (50k+ rows), dispatch batch queue jobs
php artisan fuzzy-search:rebuild "App\Models\User" --fresh --async --queue=indexing

Step 5 — Start a queue worker:

# Development
php artisan queue:work --queue=indexing,default

# Production (Supervisor)

Supervisor config (/etc/supervisor/conf.d/fuzzy-search-worker.conf):

[program:fuzzy-search-worker]
process_name=%(program_name)s_%(process_num)02d
command=php /var/www/html/artisan queue:work database --queue=indexing,default --sleep=3 --tries=3 --max-time=3600
autostart=true
autorestart=true
user=www-data
numprocs=2
redirect_stderr=true
stdout_logfile=/var/log/fuzzy-search-worker.log

For Laravel Horizon (Redis):

// config/horizon.php
'environments' => [
    'production' => [
        'supervisor-1' => [
            'connection' => 'redis',
            'queue'      => ['indexing', 'default'],
            'balance'    => 'auto',
            'processes'  => 4,
        ],
    ],
],

Usage

// BM25 search — faster + better relevance on large tables
$users = User::search('john')->useInvertedIndex()->get();

// didYouMean() reads from the term dictionary — O(1) at any dataset size
$suggestions = User::search('jonh')->searchIn(['name'])->didYouMean(3);

Note: useIndex() is an alias for useInvertedIndex(). The deprecated legacy search_index table from v1 is no longer used.

Limitation: The BM25 inverted index requires integer primary keys. Models with UUID/ULID primary keys are not currently supported — use the standard LIKE or Levenshtein paths for those.

Column weights and BM25: searchIn() weights are respected by the LIKE/Levenshtein scoring paths but are ignored by BM25. BM25 scores by term frequency and inverse document frequency only.

Artisan Commands

# Show index statistics (total docs, tokens, avg length per model)
php artisan fuzzy-search:status

# Rebuild synchronously (good for < 50k rows)
php artisan fuzzy-search:rebuild "App\Models\User"
php artisan fuzzy-search:rebuild "App\Models\User" --fresh

# Rebuild asynchronously via queue (recommended for large tables)
php artisan fuzzy-search:rebuild "App\Models\User" --async
php artisan fuzzy-search:rebuild "App\Models\User" --fresh --async --queue=indexing

# Delete all index entries for a model
php artisan fuzzy-search:flush "App\Models\User"

BM25 Tuning

// config/fuzzy-search.php
'bm25' => [
    'k1' => 1.5,   // Term-frequency saturation (1.2–2.0). Higher = more weight to repeated terms.
    'b'  => 0.75,  // Length normalisation (0–1). 0 = ignore doc length. 1 = full normalisation.
],

Stemming (Optional)

Default: no stemming (NullStemmer). With NullStemmer, running only matches running, not run or ran.

To enable Porter stemming:

composer require wamania/php-stemmer

// config/fuzzy-search.php
'indexing' => [
    'stemmer' => \Ashiqfardus\LaravelFuzzySearch\Indexing\PorterStemmer::class,
],

Supported languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian. You must rebuild the index after changing the stemmer.

Observer Auto-Attach

Adding the Searchable trait automatically registers observers via bootSearchable():

SearchableIndexingObserver — listens to saved and deleted events. Queues an IndexModelJob to update the BM25 index. This is a no-op when indexing.enabled is false.
SearchableObserver — listens to saved events and writes metaphone shadow columns if they exist. Safe when no shadow columns are configured — the observer silently exits.

No configuration is required for either observer until you enable those features.

Sync vs Async

	`async = true` (default)	`async = false`
How it works	Dispatches `IndexModelJob` to queue	Indexes in the same request, no queue
Request latency	Unaffected	+~10ms per save
Requires queue worker	Yes	No
Best for	Production apps	Tests, local dev, low-traffic apps

For tests, set indexing.async = false so indexing happens synchronously:

// In your test setUp
config(['fuzzy-search.indexing.enabled' => true, 'fuzzy-search.indexing.async' => false]);

Extended Search Syntax

Use Fuse.js-style operators inside your search string for precise control over matching.

Operators

Token	Meaning	Example
`word`	Substring match (default)	`john`
`'word`	Explicit substring include	`'admin`
`=word`	Exact equality	`=John`
`^word`	Prefix match	`^Doe`
`word$`	Suffix match	`Sr$`
`!word`	Exclude (NOT)	`!banned`
`!^word`	Inverse prefix	`!^test`
`!word$`	Inverse suffix	`[email protected]$`
`\|`	OR	`john \| jane`
(whitespace)	AND (implicit)	`=John ^Doe`
`( ... )`	Grouping	`admin (john \| jane)`
`"phrase"`	Quoted single token	`"hello world"`

Usage

// Exact first name + prefix last name + exclude banned
$users = User::search('=John ^Doe !banned')->extended()->get();

// OR semantics with grouping
$users = User::search('admin (john | jane)')->extended()->get();

// More examples
'Sr$ | Jr$'              // Names ending in Sr OR Jr
"'manager [email protected]$"   // Substring 'manager' but not @temp.com emails

Limits

Limit	Default	Config key
Maximum tokens per query	32	`query.max_tokens`
Maximum nesting depth	16	`query.max_depth`

Pagination with Extended Syntax

paginate() and cursorPaginate() are not compatible with extended() or searchBoolean() and will throw a BadMethodCallException. simplePaginate() works correctly.

// ✓ Works
User::search('=John ^Doe')->extended()->simplePaginate(15);
User::search('=John ^Doe')->extended()->get();

// ✗ Throws BadMethodCallException
User::search('=John ^Doe')->extended()->paginate(15);

Match Offsets & Blade Directive

Results with ->highlight() enabled include a _matches array:

$first = $results->first();
$first->_matches;
// [['column' => 'name', 'value' => 'John Doe', 'indices' => [[0, 3]]]]

For safe HTML rendering, use the @fuzzyHighlight Blade directive:

@fuzzyHighlight($user, 'name')

The directive automatically escapes user-supplied content and wraps matches in <mark> tags.

Scout Driver

The Scout engine adapter is bundled in this package and registers automatically when laravel/scout is installed. No separate driver package is required.

Setup

composer require laravel/scout
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laravel\Scout\ScoutServiceProvider"

In .env:

SCOUT_DRIVER=fuzzy-search

Build the index:

php artisan fuzzy-search:rebuild "App\Models\User"

Usage

Add both traits to your model:

use Laravel\Scout\Searchable;
use Ashiqfardus\LaravelFuzzySearch\Traits\Searchable as FuzzySearchable;

class User extends Model
{
    use Searchable, FuzzySearchable {
        // FuzzySearchable::search() takes precedence — returns the fluent SearchBuilder.
        // Scout's underlying engine (FuzzySearchEngine) is still used when SCOUT_DRIVER=fuzzy-search.
        FuzzySearchable::search insteadof Searchable;
        Searchable::search as scoutSearch;
    }

    public function toSearchableArray(): array
    {
        return ['name' => $this->name, 'email' => $this->email];
    }
}

$users = User::search('john')->get();

Relevance Scores

Results include _score (BM25 relevance, higher = more relevant):

foreach (User::search('laravel')->get() as $user) {
    echo $user->name . ': ' . $user->_score;
}

Authorization

Scout's default behavior bypasses Eloquent global scopes. Apply them explicitly:

User::search('john')
    ->query(fn($q) => $q->withoutTrashed()->where('tenant_id', auth()->user()->tenant_id))
    ->get();

How It Works

The Scout engine wraps the same IndexManager + Bm25Scorer used by Model::search()->useInvertedIndex(). There is no separate index — it reads from the same fuzzy_index_* tables.

Pagination

Stable Ranking

// Results maintain consistent order across pages
$page1 = User::search('john')->stableRanking()->paginate(10, page: 1);
$page2 = User::search('john')->stableRanking()->paginate(10, page: 2);

Pagination Methods

// Offset pagination
$users = User::search('john')->paginate(15);

// Simple pagination (no total count - faster)
$users = User::search('john')->simplePaginate(15);

// Cursor pagination (best for infinite scroll)
$users = User::search('john')->cursorPaginate(15);

// Manual pagination
$users = User::search('john')
    ->take(10)
    ->skip(20)
    ->get();

Note: paginate() and cursorPaginate() are not compatible with extended() or searchBoolean(). Use simplePaginate() or get() with those.

Reliability & Safety

Fallback Search Strategy

// Automatically falls back to simpler algorithm if primary fails
User::search('john')
    ->using('trigram')
    ->fallback('fuzzy')      // First fallback
    ->fallback('simple')     // Second fallback
    ->get();

Rate-Limit Friendliness

// Built-in debouncing for real-time search
User::search($query)
    ->debounce(300)  // 300ms debounce
    ->get();

// Query complexity limits
User::search($query)
    ->maxPatterns(50)  // Limit pattern generation
    ->get();

SQL Injection Safety

All queries use parameterized bindings. Search terms are automatically sanitized.

// Safe - input is sanitized
User::search("'; DROP TABLE users; --")->get();

Exception Handling

use Ashiqfardus\LaravelFuzzySearch\Exceptions\LaravelFuzzySearchException;
use Ashiqfardus\LaravelFuzzySearch\Exceptions\EmptySearchTermException;
use Ashiqfardus\LaravelFuzzySearch\Exceptions\InvalidAlgorithmException;

// Catch all fuzzy search exceptions
try {
    $results = User::search($term)->get();
} catch (LaravelFuzzySearchException $e) {
    Log::error('Search failed', $e->toArray());
}

// Catch specific exceptions
try {
    $results = User::search('')->get();
} catch (EmptySearchTermException $e) {
    return response()->json(['error' => 'Please enter a search term']);
}

try {
    $results = User::search('test')->using('invalid')->get();
} catch (InvalidAlgorithmException $e) {
    return response()->json(['error' => $e->getMessage()]);
}

Available Exceptions:

LaravelFuzzySearchException - Base exception (catch all)
EmptySearchTermException - Search term is empty
InvalidAlgorithmException - Invalid algorithm specified
InvalidConfigException - Configuration error
SearchableColumnsNotFoundException - No searchable columns found

Events

`FuzzySearchExecuted`

Fired after every ->get() or ->paginate() call. Useful for monitoring search latency and volume in production.

use Ashiqfardus\LaravelFuzzySearch\Events\FuzzySearchExecuted;

Event::listen(FuzzySearchExecuted::class, function ($event) {
    Log::info('search', [
        'term'      => $event->searchTerm,
        'columns'   => $event->columns,
        'algorithm' => $event->algorithm,
        'count'     => $event->candidateCount,
        'ms'        => $event->latencyMs,
    ]);
});

Properties:

searchTerm (string) — the user's query
columns (array) — columns being searched
algorithm (string) — algorithm used: simple, fuzzy, levenshtein, soundex, metaphone, trigram, similar_text, or bm25
candidateCount (int) — rows fetched from SQL before scoring
latencyMs (float) — total search time in milliseconds

Configuration

Config File

// config/fuzzy-search.php

return [
    'default_algorithm' => 'fuzzy',
    
    'typo_tolerance' => [
        'enabled' => true,
        'max_distance' => 2,
        'min_word_length' => 4,  // No typo tolerance for short words
    ],
    
    'scoring' => [
        'exact_match' => 100,
        'prefix_match' => 50,
        'contains' => 25,
        'fuzzy_match' => 10,
    ],
    
    'stop_words' => [
        'en' => ['the', 'a', 'an', 'and', 'or', 'but', 'in', 'on', 'at'],
        'de' => ['der', 'die', 'das', 'und', 'oder', 'aber'],
    ],
    
    'synonyms' => [
        // Global synonyms
    ],
    
    'indexing' => [
        'enabled' => false,
        'async' => true,
        'queue' => 'default',
    ],
    
    'cache' => [
        'enabled' => false,
        'driver' => 'redis',
        'ttl' => 3600,
    ],
    
    'performance' => [
        'max_patterns' => 100,
        'chunk_size' => 1000,
    ],
];

Config Presets

Presets are predefined search configurations for common use cases. Instead of manually configuring multiple options every time, use a single preset name.

Without preset (verbose):

Post::search('laravel')
    ->searchIn(['title' => 10, 'body' => 5, 'excerpt' => 3])
    ->using('fuzzy')
    ->typoTolerance(2)
    ->ignoreStopWords('en')
    ->accentInsensitive()
    ->get();

With preset (clean):

Post::search('laravel')->preset('blog')->get();

Available Presets

Preset	Best For	Algorithm	Typo Tolerance	Features
`blog`	Blog posts, articles	fuzzy	2	Stop words, accent-insensitive
`ecommerce`	Product search	fuzzy	1	Partial match, no stop words
`users`	User/contact search	levenshtein	2	Accent-insensitive
`phonetic`	Name pronunciation	soundex	0	Phonetic matching
`exact`	SKUs, codes, IDs	simple	0	Partial match only

Preset Configuration Reference

// config/fuzzy-search.php
'presets' => [
    'blog' => [
        'columns' => ['title' => 10, 'body' => 5, 'excerpt' => 3],
        'algorithm' => 'fuzzy',
        'typo_tolerance' => 2,
        'stop_words_enabled' => true,
        'accent_insensitive' => true,
    ],
    
    'ecommerce' => [
        'columns' => ['name' => 10, 'description' => 5, 'sku' => 8, 'brand' => 6],
        'algorithm' => 'fuzzy',
        'typo_tolerance' => 1,
        'partial_match' => true,
        'stop_words_enabled' => false,
    ],
    
    'users' => [
        'columns' => ['name' => 10, 'email' => 8, 'username' => 9],
        'algorithm' => 'levenshtein',
        'typo_tolerance' => 2,
        'accent_insensitive' => true,
    ],
    
    'phonetic' => [
        'columns' => ['name' => 10],
        'algorithm' => 'soundex',
        'typo_tolerance' => 0,
    ],
    
    'exact' => [
        'algorithm' => 'simple',
        'typo_tolerance' => 0,
        'partial_match' => true,
    ],
],

Using Presets

User::search('john')->preset('users')->get();
Post::search('laravel')->preset('blog')->get();
Product::search('laptop')->preset('ecommerce')->get();
Contact::search('steven')->preset('phonetic')->get();  // Finds "Stephen"
Product::search('SKU-12345')->preset('exact')->get();

Override Preset Settings

// Use blog preset but with higher typo tolerance
Post::search('laravel')
    ->preset('blog')
    ->typoTolerance(3)  // Override preset's default of 2
    ->get();

Create Custom Presets

// config/fuzzy-search.php
'presets' => [
    'documents' => [
        'columns' => ['title' => 10, 'content' => 8, 'tags' => 5],
        'algorithm' => 'trigram',
        'typo_tolerance' => 2,
        'stop_words_enabled' => true,
        'locale' => 'en',
    ],
],

Document::search('report')->preset('documents')->get();

Per-Model Customization

class Product extends Model
{
    use Searchable;

    protected array $searchable = [
        'columns' => [
            'title' => 10,
            'description' => 5,
            'sku' => 8,
        ],
        'algorithm' => 'fuzzy',
        'typo_tolerance' => 2,
        'stop_words' => ['the', 'a', 'an'],
        'synonyms' => [
            'laptop' => ['notebook', 'computer'],
        ],
        'accent_insensitive' => true,
    ];

    // Custom scoring logic
    public function getSearchScore($baseScore): float
    {
        return $this->is_featured ? $baseScore * 1.5 : $baseScore;
    }
}

CLI Tools

Indexing Commands

# Build / rebuild BM25 index for a model
php artisan fuzzy-search:rebuild "App\Models\User"

# Rebuild with fresh index (flush first)
php artisan fuzzy-search:rebuild "App\Models\User" --fresh

# Rebuild asynchronously (for large tables)
php artisan fuzzy-search:rebuild "App\Models\User" --fresh --async --queue=indexing

# Flush index entries for a model
php artisan fuzzy-search:flush "App\Models\User"

# Clear BM25 index for a model
php artisan fuzzy-search:clear "App\Models\User"

# Clear BM25 index for all models
php artisan fuzzy-search:clear --all

# Show index status (row counts, avg doc length, term count per model)
php artisan fuzzy-search:status

Benchmark & Debug Commands

# Benchmark search performance
php artisan fuzzy-search:benchmark "App\Models\User" --term="john" --iterations=100

# Explain a search query
php artisan fuzzy-search:explain User --term="john"

Performance & Scaling

Algorithm Comparison

Algorithm	Speed	Typo Tolerance	Best For	Dataset Size
simple	Fastest	None	Exact matches, SKUs	Any size
fuzzy	Very Fast	High	General purpose	< 100K rows
soundex	Very Fast	Phonetic	Name searches	< 100K rows
trigram	Fast	Very High	Similarity matching	< 50K rows
levenshtein	Medium	Configurable	Precise typo matching	< 50K rows
BM25 index	Fast at scale	Via LIKE fallback	Large tables, ranked results	10K+ rows

Measured Latency (100k-row MySQL 8.0 dataset)

Numbers measured on the live demo (commodity VPS, warm cache). Run php artisan demo:seed in the demo project to seed the same dataset.

Search path	Median latency	Notes
LIKE (`using('simple')`)	~8 ms	Full table scan
Levenshtein (`using('levenshtein')`)	~45 ms	PHP re-score over 1,000 SQL candidates
BM25 inverted index (`useInvertedIndex()`)	~12 ms	Three parameterised SQL queries + PHP BM25 scoring
Extended syntax (`->extended()`)	~15 ms	Includes AST compilation and multi-operator SQL generation

At scale: The BM25 path uses an indexed term lookup — query time grows with the number of matching postings, not total row count. A well-maintained 1M-row index returns results in the same ~12–20 ms window as the 100k baseline.

When to Use BM25 vs LIKE

Use BM25 (useInvertedIndex()) when:

Table has 10k+ rows
Result ranking/relevance quality matters
You have queue workers running
Models use integer primary keys

Use LIKE / fuzzy when:

Small tables (< 10k rows) — LIKE can be faster due to BM25 scoring overhead
UUID/ULID primary keys
You need column weights to affect ranking

`max_candidates` Tuning

For the LIKE/Levenshtein paths, SQL candidates are fetched then re-scored in PHP. The candidate set size is controlled by max_candidates (default: 1000). Lower this on large tables to reduce memory usage:

// config/fuzzy-search.php
'performance' => [
    'max_candidates' => 500,  // fetch fewer candidates on large tables
],

Recommended Optimizations

// For 100k+ rows: enable BM25 index + cache + limit columns
User::search('john')
    ->useInvertedIndex()
    ->cache(60)
    ->searchIn(['name', 'email'])
    ->maxPatterns(50)
    ->get();

Key tips:

Use the BM25 index for tables with 10k+ rows
Enable caching for repeated searches
Limit columns — only search relevant fields
Use simple algorithm when typo tolerance isn't needed
Set max_candidates to prevent excessive memory usage on large tables
Use take() to cap result sets
Eager load relationships to avoid N+1 queries

Scaling Recommendations

Records	Recommended Strategy	Expected Query Time
< 50K	Default (no optimization)	< 50ms
50K - 100K	Add DB indexes + cache	< 100ms
100K - 500K	BM25 index + cache	< 150ms
500K - 1M	BM25 index + partitioning + cache	< 200ms
1M - 10M	BM25 + read replicas + tiered cache	< 300ms
> 10M	Consider Meilisearch / Typesense	—

Algorithm × Database Compatibility

This table shows what each algorithm does at the SQL level on each supported database. "Native" = the database's own function. "Pattern fallback" = PHP generates LIKE patterns.

Algorithm	MySQL 8	MariaDB 10.6	PostgreSQL 14	SQLite	SQL Server
simple / like	`LIKE '%term%'`	`LIKE '%term%'`	`ILIKE '%term%'`	`LIKE '%term%'`	`LOWER() LIKE`
fuzzy	LIKE pattern set (typo patterns, transpositions)	LIKE pattern set	ILIKE pattern set	LIKE pattern set	LIKE pattern set
levenshtein	Native `LEVENSHTEIN()` UDF if `use_native_functions=true`, else pattern set	Pattern set	`similarity()` via pg_trgm if `use_native_functions=true`, else pattern set	Pattern set	Pattern set
trigram	LIKE pattern set	LIKE pattern set	Native `similarity()` via pg_trgm if `use_native_functions=true`	LIKE pattern set	LIKE pattern set
soundex	Native `SOUNDEX()` — always on, applied to first or last word	Native `SOUNDEX()` — always on	Native `SOUNDEX()` via `fuzzystrmatch` if `use_native_functions=true`, else pattern fallback	Pattern fallback	Pattern fallback
metaphone	Shadow column `{col}_metaphone` + exact `=` match	Shadow column	Shadow column	Shadow column	Shadow column
similar_text	`LIKE '%term%'` (SQL); `similar_text()` scores in PHP after fetch	Same	`ILIKE '%term%'`; PHP scores	Same	Same

Notes

use_native_functions in config/fuzzy-search.php gates optional DB extensions. MySQL SOUNDEX() is built-in and always active — no flag needed. The flag is only relevant for: Levenshtein UDF (MySQL), pg_trgm/fuzzystrmatch (PostgreSQL), unaccent (PostgreSQL).
Levenshtein UDF (MySQL): Not installed by default. See this gist or your DB package manager.
pg_trgm (PostgreSQL): CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pg_trgm;
fuzzystrmatch (PostgreSQL): CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS fuzzystrmatch;
unaccent (PostgreSQL, for accentInsensitive()): CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS unaccent; + use_native_functions=true
MySQL accent insensitive: Use utf8mb4_unicode_ci or utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci collation on the column.
Metaphone shadow column: Run php artisan fuzzy-search:add-shadow-column {Model} {column} --type=metaphone then php artisan migrate.

PHP-Side Scoring

Regardless of algorithm, after SQL candidates are fetched:

similar_text() and levenshtein() run in PHP on each candidate.
Results are re-sorted by the combined PHP score (higher = better).
limit/offset is applied on the PHP-sorted collection (not in SQL).

Top-N results are always the most relevant N from the candidate set (not just the first N SQL rows). Candidate set size is controlled by max_candidates (default: 1000).

Pagination note: paginate() and simplePaginate() use DB-level pagination and score within the current page only. For globally-ranked pagination across all pages, use the BM25 inverted index.

Testing

# Run tests
composer test

# Run with coverage
composer test-coverage

# Run benchmarks
composer benchmark

Requirements

PHP 8.1 or higher
Laravel 9.x, 10.x, 11.x, 12.x, or 13.x
Any supported database

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Credits

Md Asikul Islam

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.

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config		config
database/migrations		database/migrations
docs		docs
src		src
tests		tests
.gitignore		.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
composer.json		composer.json
phpunit.xml		phpunit.xml

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Laravel Fuzzy Search

Features

Table of Contents

Installation

Quick Start

Zero-Config Search

Manual Column Configuration

Fluent API

Eloquent & Query Builder Support

Search Algorithms

Available Algorithms

Shadow Columns

Typo Tolerance

Multi-Word Token Search

In-Memory Mode

Field Weighting & Scoring

Weighted Columns

Relevance Scoring

Prefix Boosting

Partial Match Support

Custom Scoring Hooks

Recency Boost

Search Suggestions / Autocomplete

"Did You Mean" Spell Correction

Multi-Model Federation Search

Search Analytics

Text Processing

Stop-Word Filtering

Synonym Support

Language / Locale Awareness

Unicode & Accent Insensitivity

Result Presentation

Highlighted Results

Debug / Explain-Score Mode

Performance & Indexing

Async Indexing (Queue Support)

Redis / Cache Support

BM25 Inverted Index

How It Works

Database Tables

Production Setup

Usage

Artisan Commands

BM25 Tuning

Stemming (Optional)

Observer Auto-Attach

Sync vs Async

Extended Search Syntax

Operators

Usage

Limits

Pagination with Extended Syntax

Match Offsets & Blade Directive

Scout Driver

Setup

Usage

Relevance Scores

Authorization

How It Works

Pagination

Stable Ranking

Pagination Methods

Reliability & Safety

Fallback Search Strategy

Rate-Limit Friendliness

SQL Injection Safety

Exception Handling

Events

FuzzySearchExecuted

Configuration

Config File

Config Presets

Available Presets

Preset Configuration Reference

Using Presets

Override Preset Settings

`FuzzySearchExecuted`

`max_candidates` Tuning

Packages