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List: lucene-user
Subject: Re: help with boolean expression
From: Erik Hatcher <erik () ehatchersolutions ! com>
Date: 2005-03-02 11:25:58
Message-ID: ad7dd639d648188d927c27f804ccf7a1 () ehatchersolutions ! com
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I'm deep into implementing a custom (not generalizable, sorry) query
parser and am evaluating this very issue now.
Lucene indeed does some funny stuff with boolean operators. Output the
toString of your resultant Query's to see the details, or have a look
at the Bugzilla issue that Morus mentions below.
First some background: BooleanQuery clauses each have their own set of
required/optional/prohibited attributes. Putting operators between
them is awkward in the Lucene sense because the parser has to set each
clause individually, not in relation to another one.
QueryParser takes the most recent operator and applies it to both the
clause before and after, and there is no sense of operator precedence
(such as in a math expression like 1 + 2 * 3). In the case of A AND B
OR C, when the AND is encountered, it sets the required attribute for
both A and B, but then when the OR is encountered it sets the optional
attribute on B and C, stepping on the previous required flag for B.
And similarly with A OR B AND C.
I agree that the current behavior is awkward. Is it worth breaking
backwards compatibility to correct this with the patch applied?
As for the default operator, it is not coming into play in your
expression examples because there all clauses have an explicit
conjunction that sets the flag. The default operator comes into play
for an expression like A B AND C and would be used to set the flag on
the A clause.
Erik
On Mar 1, 2005, at 9:12 AM, Omar Didi wrote:
> I found something kind fo weird about the way lucene interprets
> boolean expressions wihout parenthesis.
> when i run the query A AND B OR C, it returns only the documents that
> have A(in other words as if the query was just the term A).
> when I run the query A OR B AND C, it returns only the documents that
> have B AND C(as if teh query was just B AND C ). I set the default
> operator in my application to be AND.
> can anyone explain this behavior, thanks.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Morus Walter [mailto:morus.walter@tanto.de]
> Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 2:40 AM
> To: Lucene Users List
> Subject: Re: help with boolean expression
>
>
> Omar Didi writes:
>> I have a problem understanding how would lucene iterpret this boolean
>> expression : A AND B OR C .
>> it neither return the same count as when I enter (A AND B) OR C nor A
>> AND (B OR C).
>> if anyone knows how it is interpreted i would be thankful.
>> thanks
>
> A AND B OR C creates a query that requires A and B. C influcenes the
> score, but is neither sufficient nor required for a match.
>
> IMO query parser is broken for queries mixing AND and OR without
> explicit
> braces.
> My favorite sample is `a AND b OR c AND d' which equals `a AND b AND c
> AND d'
> in query parser.
>
> I suggested a patch some time ago, but it's still pending in bugzilla.
> http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=25820
>
> Don't know if it's still usable with current sources.
>
> Morus
>
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