Algorithm for Dating Website

Out of curiosity, i'm wondering if anyone has had any experience writing a Dating Website. I hear the word algorithm used alot but have never really came across a situation where i've needed to use one (or so i thought). I also hear that people use algorithms for Dating websites to find matches for people? What sort of language to these sites use for their logic? PHP perhaps?

My question in summary is could you use PHP to construct a Dating web开发者_运维知识库site and use "algorithms" to find matches for people or is that not how its done?

An algorithm is a logical construct that performs a task.

If a dating website offers any sort of functionality to "match" people, whether it is calculating compatibility or doing searches based on some sort of "suitability" parameter then it is using an "algorithm" of some sort.

If a dating website merely lets users search the database based on the data entered (where they live, gender, etc. etc.) then it is not using any sort of algorithm beyond those used internally in its components.

The answer to your question in summary is "yes" and "whatever". Yes you could use PHP and you could use "algorithms" to find matches for people. As to "how it is done", I imagine that there is no one single way currently implemented, and certainly there is always room for someone to invent a new way of doing it even if that is how "it is done". Don't feel constrained by custom.

I hear the word algorithm used alot but have never really came across a situation where i've needed to use one

Then you've never written a computer program, never planned anything advance, never solved a mathematical problem, never cooked using a recipe?

I think you've not understood what 'algorithm' means.

Yes you could use PHP or lots of other programming languages and tools for this purpose. Computers and programming languages are just one way to implement algorithms - and a computer/program is by definition an implementation of an algorithm.

There's a nice chapter in "Programming Collective Intelligence" that talks about one algorithm in great detail. The examples are all in Python, but any language could be used.

Yes you can and you should. For example, Facebook which isn't really a dating website tries to find your "possible friends" by comparing common friends with another user. If you have lets say 50 or more friends in common, that means you may also be friends.

For a dating website, where you live, age, interests ... and many more can be added to the algorithm.

I wrote a Dating site in PHP, combined with an "adult store" (which I won't put the link to here...).

But yeah, that's how I did it - Used PHP functions to "match" people...