You don't say which database you are using. But MySQL and other databases provide a Full-text Search capability which provides weighted results to text queries of just the kind you are describing. You can access this through DBI just like any other SQL query you might submit.

There is some overhead involved for the database engine to maintain the full-text index, but I have found that to be small in comparison to the savings, flexibility, and convenience in searching -- especially when the data is relatively stable in comparison to the frequency of the searches.

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"Perl is a mess and that's good because the
problem space is also a mess." - Larry Wall