I'm trying to figure out a way to match users based on specific personality traits. Each trait will have its own category.

I figure in my user table I'll add a column for each category:

id    name    cat1    cat2    cat3
1     Sean    ?       ?       ?
2     Other   ?       ?       ?

Let's say I ask each user 3 questions in each category. For each question, you can answer one of the following: No, Maybe, Yes How would I calculate one number based off the answers in those 3 questions that would hold a value I can compare other users to?

I was thinking having some sort of weight. Like:

No    -> 0
Maybe -> 1
Yes   -> 2

Then doing some sort of meaningful calculation. I want to end up with something like this so I can query the users and find who matches close:

id    name    cat1    cat2    cat3
1     Sean    4       5       1
2     Other   1       2       5

In the situation above, the users don't really match. I'd want to match with someone with a +1 or -1 of my score in each category.

I'm not a math guy so I'm just looking for some ideas to get me started.