BM25 Scoring

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Basic Usage

BM25 scores measure how relevant a score is for a given query. Higher scores indicate higher relevance. The paradedb.score(<key_field>) function can be added to any query where an @@@ operator is present.

SELECT id, paradedb.score(id)
FROM mock_items
WHERE description @@@ 'shoes'
ORDER BY paradedb.score(id)
LIMIT 5;

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Joined Scores

The following query demonstrates how to compute a “combined BM25 score” over a joined search. It joins mock_items with orders, which were both created in the quickstart.

SELECT o.order_id, paradedb.score(o.order_id) + paradedb.score(m.id) as score
FROM orders o
JOIN mock_items m ON o.product_id = m.id
WHERE o.customer_name @@@ 'Johnson' AND (m.description @@@ 'shoes' OR m.description @@@ 'running')
ORDER BY score DESC, o.order_id
LIMIT 5;

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Score Refresh

The scores generated by the BM25 index may be influenced by dead rows that have not been cleaned up by the VACUUM process.

Running VACUUM on the underlying table will remove all dead rows from the index and ensures that only rows visible to the current transaction are factored into the BM25 score.

VACUUM <table_name>;