Bug #61460 The documentation for MATCH...AGAINST should mention the default search type
Submitted: 9 Jun 2011 11:48 Modified: 22 Jun 2011 22:31
Reporter: Dan Dascalescu Email Updates:
Status: Closed Impact on me:
None 
Category:MySQL Server: Documentation Severity:S3 (Non-critical)
Version: OS:Any
Assigned to: Paul DuBois CPU Architecture:Any

[9 Jun 2011 11:48] Dan Dascalescu 
Description:
The documentation should mention what type of search MATCH ... AGAINST performs by default when no search modifier is specified.
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/fulltext-search.html#function_match

How to repeat:
1. Fetch a user who's not aware of MATCH ... AGAINST.
2. Have them read the documentation at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/fulltext-search.html#function_match
3. Ask them what the default search mode is if the optional modifier is not specified.
[9 Jun 2011 15:14] Valeriy Kravchuk 
One just have to click on the very first URL/subsection on that page to get to http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/fulltext-natural-language.html and read the answer in the very first paragraph. Please, check.
[9 Jun 2011 19:27] Dan Dascalescu 
Right. So to make thing easier,

"IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE" from the "modifier" section should be changed to:
"IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE -- default mode if no modifier is specified"
[22 Jun 2011 14:23] Paul DuBois 
It's not necessary to click anywhere or go to a different section. The list on the same page that describes the search modes already indicates that IN NATURAL LANGUAGE is used if no modifier is given.
[22 Jun 2011 18:46] Dan Dascalescu 
Right, the page does say "Full-text searches are natural language searches if the IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE modifier is given or if no modifier is given" now. If it hasn't been changed in the meantime, then I just didn't see it the first few times I looked at it, which means that information could benefit from being placed closer to where "NATURAL LANGUAGE" is first mentioned. That's how I've seen defaults usually listed.
[22 Jun 2011 19:31] Paul DuBois 
It hadn't been changed, so that information was there. However, I've made some other changes which will show up when the docs rebuilds:

* In the initial list of options, I put IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE first (not second)
* In the narrative discussion of the modes, I put the IN NATURAL LANGUAGE bullet first (not second)
[22 Jun 2011 22:32] Dan Dascalescu 
Thanks Paul.