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substring=1 and substring=0 Search Anomaly

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substring=1 and substring=0 Search Anomaly
Nomatter whether substring=1 or sibstring=0, a search for say USA returns all links containging for example:

USA
HUSAIN
PUSAINSTITUTE

All attempts on Admin as Well As Advanced Search Revelas No Diference in results. Is this a Bug?

HyTC

Last edited by:

HyperTherm: Aug 27, 2004, 10:09 AM
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Re: [HyperTherm] substring=1 and substring=0 Search Anomaly In reply to
    
Before this query gets burried deep let me link to live examples:

click on the following two links see the results:

http://www.ultranerds.com/...=25&query=custom

http://www.ultranerds.com/...=25&query=custom

If the searched word custom gives identically similar results, then what's the great purpose of havin this radio button of exact and similar words....

A search for custom on Alta Vista doesn't yield highlighted results like customer. Here no matter what a user selects as option, he would always get customer in search.

HyTC

Last edited by:

HyperTherm: Sep 8, 2004, 1:02 AM
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Re: [HyperTherm] substring=1 and substring=0 Search Anomaly In reply to
Is this a Bug?
Or Is it designed to function this way?
It's really unlcear when a query apparently made to look unimportant by being unanswered for two weeks. Search is heart of any data collection, and if search starts throwing up results with customers when custom is searched, or HUSAIN when USA is searched, the search has theoretically failed and so also the functional utility of those radio buttons on advanced search form.

Example above is from site hosted with GT so that the server setup issue is ruled out as a cause of anomaly.

Any suggestions/clue?

HyTC
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Re: [HyperTherm] substring=1 and substring=0 Search Anomaly In reply to
Take another example:

http://www.ultranerds.com/...25&query=custome

Now that incomplete word custome (which i presume should not be existing as a whole word by itself) should not have returned the same result as search for customer when "Find Exact Words" is selected (search done from Advanced Search Interface on UltraNerds.com)

Additionally, for Boolean type of search (AltaVista Style presumed as read it somewhere on this forum that LSQL Boolean search is styled around Altavista...

Case A (LSQL On UltraNerds.com)
I search for +customer -customer I get
Your search returned 12 categories and 0 Links.

Case B (LSQL On UltraNerds.com)
I search for -customer +customer I get
Your search returned 2 categories and 2 Links

Theoretically, If LSQL Boolean Search Should Have Resulted In Identical Search Results.... As Altavista Does as highlighted below:

Then i do a search on Altavista.com

Case A
+custom -custom
Barring Sponsored Listing, Altavista returns this response
We found 0 results. Suggestions:
  • Check your spelling.
  • Try different or fewer keywords.
  • Remove quotation marks or plus signs.
  • Try changing the radio button to do a Worldwide search instead of a country search.

Case B

-custom +custom
Barring Sponsored Listing, AltaVista returns this response
We found 0 results. Suggestions:
  • Check your spelling.
  • Try different or fewer keywords.
  • Remove quotation marks or plus signs.
  • Try changing the radio button to do a Worldwide search instead of a country search.

So for same boolean search (no matter where you place the include or exclude word), AltaVista returns the same result (consistent) ... LSQL gives absurd results as far as i can understand from the search performed on Andy's site UltraNerds.com

Any Comments

HyTC
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Re: [HyperTherm] substring=1 and substring=0 Search Anomaly In reply to
Is this search anomaly normal and to be taken as "To Be Accepted"?
I am surprised that no one answered this ...

It's surprising...

HyTC
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Re: [HyperTherm] substring=1 and substring=0 Search Anomaly In reply to
As your example shows, there is at least 1 problem. Your test seems to be valid, however it uses the same word for inclusive & exclusive search (-customer +customer), therefore you test an inpractical situation.


But when we test the following examples, still give the same result:
http://www.ultranerds.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?bool=and&substring=0&mh=25&query=custome
http://www.ultranerds.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?bool=and&substring=1&mh=25&query=custome
First one should have no match, while second should have several matches.

So your proposal of a bug seems to be true.

Note, that search also depends on the driver which is actually used. This may affect this feature.

Best regards,
Webmaster33


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Webmaster33's products (upd.2004.09.26) | Private message | Contact me | Was my post helpful? Donate my help...
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Re: [webmaster33] substring=1 and substring=0 Search Anomaly In reply to
Hi.

The search + sameterm -sameterm is impractical... Very True.
Software functioning however (that's what i was taught while few months in QC on software testing) ... has to function *error free* with *impractical but logically valid* situations. Test Beds of vehicles are really impractical, but then it has to pass through that QC step Wink

And same impractical search scenario works as expected on a search engine from which Links SQL has imbibed the boolean search ... 0 search results no matter where you place the + and - for the same searchterm in the query. On driver used it's beyond my knowledge as ultranerd's.com is controlle by Andy and he would be in a position to divulge those details if he wishes to.

Thanks
HyTC
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Re: [webmaster33] substring=1 and substring=0 Search Anomaly In reply to
As a further update on this (which I presume GT staff must be aware of) ...

LinksSQL Demo on GT is V2.1.1 Search does not fail there for the +searchterm -searchterm though i did not try other combinations ... too tired :/

On 2.2.0 ( i presume that) on most of the sites under Andy's access that i tried on, the anomaly *does* reproducibly occur /recur. Andy would perhaps enlighten on the version that he is using on ultranerds and by-a-poster site...

I have notied similar anomaly on our install too which is again 2.2.0 though we are not with GT Hosting. Perhaps others on versions 2.1.1 or 2.1.2 could give this more data. Is it that this bug is a 2.2.0 issue? Hmmm upgrades can be painful...

HyTC
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Re: [HyperTherm] substring=1 and substring=0 Search Anomaly In reply to
Quote:
LinksSQL Demo on GT is V2.1.1 Search does not fail
Then likely it's just a driver/indexing sheme related problem, which can be easily fixed.

Best regards,
Webmaster33


Paid Support
from Webmaster33. Expert in Perl programming & Gossamer Threads applications. (click here for prices)
Webmaster33's products (upd.2004.09.26) | Private message | Contact me | Was my post helpful? Donate my help...
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Re: [HyperTherm] substring=1 and substring=0 Search Anomaly In reply to
Check what indexing you are using for the table - try changing to INTERNAL and reindexing the table and it should work.
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Re: [afinlr] substring=1 and substring=0 Search Anomaly In reply to
Indexing scheme was as it was what installation had fixed.
Changing however, results in following symbols being replaced with a ? all throughout whereever they exist

® © ™

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">

HyTC
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Re: [HyperTherm] substring=1 and substring=0 Search Anomaly In reply to
I still got this problem with 3.0.3.
No solution out for this?
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Re: [Robert] substring=1 and substring=0 Search Anomaly In reply to
Another thread without an answer from GT !