Joshua, Yep, thought of that and having argued it out with the lead on this, it would be suitable in my opinion but even I would concede that it is a hack in our case since there is no limit to the variety of characters that could appear as the value for the field which may be an empty string. Hence there isn't the 100% guarantee that there will never be the circumstance when this special character or String of characters we choose to represent empty fields will appear as a valid value.
Thanks anyway though. Minh ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joshua O'Madadhain" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Lucene Users List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2002 6:03 PM Subject: Re: Empty phrase search > Minh: > > Why not just use a special character or string (one that won't appear in a > non-empty field) to represent an empty field? It doesn't have to appear > in the user interface, if that's a concern; you could convert a query > including "FieldA:NULL" (or whatever) into a query containing > "FieldA:emptyfield" automatically. > > This allows you to finesse the entire issue of adding something to > Lucene--which may be for the best anyway, since this is really just a > special case of looking for fields whose contents have a specific > characteristic. > > Good luck-- > > Joshua O'Madadhain > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] Per Obscurius...www.ics.uci.edu/~jmadden > Joshua O'Madadhain: Information Scientist, Musician, Philosopher-At-Tall > It's that moment of dawning comprehension that I live for--Bill Watterson > My opinions are too rational and insightful to be those of any organization. > > On Tue, 17 Dec 2002, Minh Kama Yie wrote: > > > Thanks for that Peter. > > > > Unfortunately I'm not looking for "all" documents but rather documents where > > the fields can be empty. > > Hence using the universal field wouldn't quite work. > > The "empty:true" approach is interesting however it effectively doubles the > > number of indexable fields for a document. > > > > Need to assess whether or not we want to support this feature I guess. > > > > Currently, considering Lucene's architecture this feature needs to be > > inherently supported rather than worked around with various fields I think > > for it to be used/done properly... > > > > Would anyone be able to point me in the general direction of where to look > > in the Lucene code to attempt this? > > Hopefully this way I can give a proper cost/benefit analysis as to whether > > or not to support this feature...and if all goes well, release something > > back for the great work you guys do.... > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Peter Carlson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: "Lucene Users List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2002 4:25 PM > > Subject: Re: Empty phrase search > > > > > > > I don't think so. > > > > > > One approach to look for everything, or not something is to add a field > > > to each document which is a constant value. Like a field named exists > > > and a value of true. > > > > > > Then you can do search like > > > > > > exists:true NOT microsoft > > > > > > This will find all documents without the term microsoft in them. > > > > > > Just to have it find documents with nothing might be a little tricky. > > > You might want to put a field in the document which indicates the size > > > or something like that. Or just create an empty field and look for > > > > > > empty:true > > > > > > I hope this rambling helps > > > > > > --Peter > > > > > > On Monday, December 16, 2002, at 03:24 PM, Minh Kama Yie wrote: > > > > > > > Hi guys, > > > > > > > > Just wondering if lucene indexes empty strings and if so, how to > > > > search for this using the query language? > > > > > > > > > > > > Regards, > > > > > > > > Minh Kama Yie > > > > > > > > This message is intended only for the named recipient. > > > > If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that > > > > disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action > > > > in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly > > > > prohibited. > > > > > > > > > -- > > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > For additional commands, e-mail: > > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > > > -- > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > > -- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
