Typo tolerance in PrestaShop search

What is really on

Fuzzy, bounded to four attempts per word

On a stock PrestaShop 8, `PS_SEARCH_FUZZY` is 1 and `PS_SEARCH_FUZZY_MAX_LOOP` is 4. The fuzzy pass looks for near matches to each word in the word table, and gives up after that many attempts.

So a single-letter slip in a common word usually resolves. Two slips, a transposition in a long brand name, or a word the index never stored at all do not.

-- ps_configuration, a stock PrestaShop 8 install
PS_SEARCH_FUZZY            1     -- on
PS_SEARCH_FUZZY_MAX_LOOP   4     -- attempts per word
PS_SEARCH_MINWORDLEN       3     -- shorter words never indexed
PS_SEARCH_MAX_WORD_LENGTH  15    -- longer words truncated

Where it cannot help

Fuzzy matching cannot find what was never indexed

The fuzzy pass searches the word table. A word below the minimum length was never written to it, and a word above the maximum was written truncated — so no amount of approximate matching reaches them.

It also costs time, on your server, per word, at exactly the moment a shopper is waiting.

The difference

Typo tolerance as a property of the engine

NitroSearch scores every result by closeness rather than making extra attempts against a word list, so it degrades gracefully instead of stopping at a loop count — and it applies to names, brands and references alike, with no length floor or ceiling.