Sorting modes

At times you might want to sort the results by values other than relevance. The Sphinx API provides SetSortMode($mode, $sortby="") method which can be used to set the sort mode other than relevance, which is the default sort mode.

The following sorting modes are available in Sphinx:

• SPH_SORT_RELEVANCE: Sorts by relevance in descending order, that is, best matches first

• SPH_SORT_ATTR_DESC: Sorts by an attribute in descending order, that is, bigger attribute values first

• SPH_SORT_ATTR_ASC: Same as SPH_SORT_ATTR_DESC, but sorts in ascending order

• SPH_SORT_TIME_SEGMENTS: Sorts by time segments (last hour/day/week/month), in descending order, and then by relevance in descending order

• SPH_SORT_EXTENDED: Sorts by SQL-like combination in ASC or DESC order

• SPH_SORT_EXPR: Sorts by an arithmetic expression

Examples:

// Sort by relevance. Second parameter is not required in this case.
$client->SetSortMode(SPH_SORT_RELEVANCE);
// Sort by author_id in descending order
$client->...