<![CDATA[Ascert Knowledgebase]]> Wed, 29 Apr 2026 22:53:26 -0700 en <![CDATA[How does the Knowledgebase search function work?]]> Mon, 27 Feb 2006 17:29:08 -0800

The default search algorithm regards any sequence of true word characters (letters, digits, and underscores) as a word. That sequence may also contain apostrophes ('), but not more than one in a row. This means that aaa'bbb is regarded as one word, but aaa''bbb is regarded as two words. Apostrophes at the beginning or the end of a word are stripped by the FULLTEXT parser; 'aaa'bbb' would be parsed as aaa'bbb.

The parser determines where words start and end by looking for certain delimiter characters; for example, " " (space), "," (comma), and "." (period).

Some words are ignored in full-text searches:

  • Any word that is too short is ignored. The minimum length of words that are found is three characters.

  • Words in the stopword list are ignored. A stopword is a word such as "the" or "some" that is so common that it is considered to have zero semantic value. 

Every correct word in the collection and in the query is weighted according to its significance in the collection or query. Consequently, a word that is present in many documents has a lower weight (and may even have a zero weight), because it has lower semantic value in this particular collection. Conversely, if the word is rare, it receives a higher weight. The weights of the words are combined to compute the relevance of the row.

Words that are present in at least 50% of the rows are effectively treated as stopwords. This is because a word that matches half of the rows in a table is less likely to locate relevant documents. In fact, it most likely finds plenty of irrelevant documents. ]]> <![CDATA[What if I can't find an answer in the Knowledgebase?]]> Fri, 31 Mar 2006 11:48:45 -0800 Firstly, make sure that you are logged in to the support website to ensure you are seeing all the articles.

If you still can't find what you're looking for, please help us to improve our Knowledgebase by sending an email to Technical Support.

]]> <![CDATA[How do I add a comment to a Knowledgebase article?]]> Mon, 27 Feb 2006 17:29:08 -0800 Any registered user of our website can add a comment to a Knowledgebase article, however you must be logged in.

]]> <![CDATA[What do these numbers in parentheses mean against the sub-categories?]]> Fri, 31 Mar 2006 11:54:32 -0800 The numbers indicate how many articles are available for you to view in that sub-category, and all its child categories. The actual number of articles viewable depends on whether or not you are logged on.


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