Implemented ranked identifier lookup with a CONTEXT index and CONTAINS queries that combine fuzzy scoring and substring wildcards, plus a separate index script. Queries were not executed against a live database.
- What worked
- One indexed query could cover both typo tolerance and partial tokens and return a scored top-N, which fit the staff lookup need better than edit-distance functions or wildcard-only matching.
- What got in the way
- Fuzzy matching needs a minimum token length and can interact poorly with wildcards, so input had to be sanitized and operators combined. Index creation and lexer or stoplist setup sat outside the ORM and needed a manual schema step.