Using synonyms in name search

Question

Hello,
i'm trying to use synonyms in an oracle namesearch. I setup a name seqarch like in the second example described in the oracle text application developer's guide at http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E18283_01/text.112/e16594/search.htm
Now the name i'm searching for might contain a '&', for example 'B & V'.
I'd like to find this text when i enter 'B&V', B & V' or even 'B and V'.
I found a thread about setting up a thesaurus with synonyms for '&' and 'and' at "and" and Ampersand or special characters
Now i wonder how to combine this.
Thanks for help in advance,
Dirk

Answer 1

In the following example, I started with the code from the second example in the link provided. I added one row of data containing the "B & V" for testing. I added "&" and "and" to the thesaurus as synonyms. I added a function to format the search string by adding an extra space around "&", removing duplicate spaces, adding "{" and "}" around each reserved keyword, trimming the result, and returning it. I then modified the query to use the function. That seems to be all that is necessary. It does not seem to be necessary to change the stoplist or printjoins, due to the way the rest of the code is written. I added comment lines to show where I made changes. I did not change the procedure, but you may want to modify it as the usage of regexp seems to be only outputting the last four digits of the phone.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> create table emp (
  2        first_name    varchar2(30),
  3        middle_name   varchar2(30),
  4        last_name     varchar2(30),
  5        email            varchar2(30),
  6        phone            varchar2(30));
Table created.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> insert into emp values
  2  ('John', 'Black', 'Smith', '[email protected]', '123-456-7890');
1 row created.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2>
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> -- added row of data:
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> set define off
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> insert into emp values
  2  ('Jane', 'Doe', 'word B & V word', '[email protected]', '321-654-0987');
1 row created.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2>
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> create or replace procedure empuds_proc
  2       (rid in rowid, tlob in out nocopy clob) is
  3         tag varchar2(30);
  4         phone varchar2(30);
  5  begin
  6    for c1 in (select FIRST_NAME, MIDDLE_NAME, LAST_NAME, EMAIL, PHONE
  7              from emp
  8              where rowid = rid)
  9    loop
10         tag :='<email>';
11         dbms_lob.writeappend(tlob, length(tag), tag);
12         if (c1.EMAIL is not null) then
13             dbms_lob.writeappend(tlob, length(c1.EMAIL), c1.EMAIL);
14         end if;
15         tag :='</email>';
16         dbms_lob.writeappend(tlob, length(tag), tag);
17         tag :='<phone>';
18         dbms_lob.writeappend(tlob, length(tag), tag);
19         if (c1.PHONE is not null) then
20           phone := nvl(REGEXP_SUBSTR(c1.PHONE, '\d\d\d\d($|\s)'), ' ');
21           dbms_lob.writeappend(tlob, length(phone), phone);
22         end if;
23         tag :='</phone>';
24         dbms_lob.writeappend(tlob, length(tag), tag);
25         tag :='<fullname>';
26         dbms_lob.writeappend(tlob, length(tag), tag);
27         if (c1.FIRST_NAME is not null) then
28           dbms_lob.writeappend(tlob, length(c1.FIRST_NAME), c1.FIRST_NAME);
29           dbms_lob.writeappend(tlob, length(' '), ' ');
30         end if;
31         if (c1.MIDDLE_NAME is not null) then
32           dbms_lob.writeappend(tlob, length(c1.MIDDLE_NAME), c1.MIDDLE_NAME);
33           dbms_lob.writeappend(tlob, length(' '), ' ');
34         end if;
35         if (c1.LAST_NAME is not null) then
36           dbms_lob.writeappend(tlob, length(c1.LAST_NAME), c1.LAST_NAME);
37         end if;
38         tag :='</fullname>';
39         dbms_lob.writeappend(tlob, length(tag), tag);
40       end loop;
41    end;
42  /
Procedure created.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> show errors
No errors.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> begin
  2    ctx_ddl.create_preference('empuds', 'user_datastore');
  3    ctx_ddl.set_attribute('empuds', 'procedure', 'empuds_proc');
  4    ctx_ddl.set_attribute('empuds', 'output_type', 'CLOB');
  5  end;
  6  /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> begin
  2    ctx_ddl.create_section_group('namegroup', 'BASIC_SECTION_GROUP');
  3    ctx_ddl.add_ndata_section('namegroup', 'fullname', 'fullname');
  4    ctx_ddl.add_ndata_section('namegroup', 'phone', 'phone');
  5    ctx_ddl.add_ndata_section('namegroup', 'email', 'email');
  6  end;
  7  /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> begin
  2    ctx_thes.create_thesaurus ('nicknames');
  3    ctx_thes.create_relation ('nicknames', 'John', 'syn', 'Jon');
  4  end;
  5  /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2>
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> -- added synonym to thesaurus:
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> begin
  2    ctx_thes.create_relation ('nicknames', '&', 'syn', 'and');
  3  end;
  4  /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2>
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> begin
  2       ctx_ddl.create_preference('NDATA_WL', 'BASIC_WORDLIST');
  3       ctx_ddl.set_attribute('NDATA_WL', 'NDATA_ALTERNATE_SPELLING', 'FALSE');
  4       ctx_ddl.set_attribute('NDATA_WL', 'NDATA_BASE_LETTER', 'TRUE');
  5       ctx_ddl.set_attribute('NDATA_WL', 'NDATA_THESAURUS', 'NICKNAMES');
  6       ctx_ddl.set_attribute('NDATA_WL', 'NDATA_JOIN_PARTICLES',
  7        'de:di:la:da:el:del:qi:abd:los:la:dos:do:an:li:yi:yu:van:jon:un:sai:ben:al');
  8  end;
  9  /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> create index name_idx on emp (first_name)
  2  indextype is ctxsys.context
  3  parameters
  4    ('datastore  empuds
  5        section    group namegroup
  6        wordlist   ndata_wl');
Index created.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2>
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> -- added function to format search string:
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> create or replace function format_string
  2    (p_string in varchar2)
  3    return varchar2
  4  as
  5    v_string     varchar2 (32767) := ' ' || p_string || ' ';
  6  begin
  7    -- add extra spaces around ampersand:
  8    v_string := replace (v_string, '&', ' & ');
  9    -- remove duplciate spaces:
10    while instr (v_string, '  ') > 0
11    loop
12        v_string := replace (v_string, '  ', ' ');
13    end loop;
14    -- add { and } around each reserved word:
15    for r in
16        (select keyword,
17             ' ' || keyword || ' ' keyword2
18         from      v$reserved_words)
19    loop
20        v_string := replace (upper (v_string), r.keyword2, ' {' || r.keyword || '} ');
21    end loop;
22    return ltrim (rtrim (v_string));
23  end format_string;
24  /
Function created.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> show errors
No errors.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> -- examples of usage of function:
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> select format_string ('B & V') from dual;
FORMAT_STRING('B&V')
B {&} V
1 row selected.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> select format_string ('B and V') from dual;
FORMAT_STRING('BANDV')
B {AND} V
1 row selected.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> select format_string ('B&V') from dual;
FORMAT_STRING('B&V')
B {&} V
1 row selected.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2>
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> -- query modified to apply foramt_string function to :name variable:
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> var name varchar2(80);
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> exec :name := 'Jon Blacksmith'
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> column first_name  format a10
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> column middle_name format a11
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> column last_name   format a9
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> column phone          format a12
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> column email          format a22
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> select first_name, middle_name, last_name, phone, email, scr
  2  from   (select /*+ FIRST_ROWS */
  3                first_name, middle_name, last_name, phone, email, score(1) scr
  4            from   emp
  5            where  contains
  6                  (first_name,
  7                   'ndata (phone,'       || format_string (:name) || ') OR
  8                 ndata (email,'       || format_string (:name) || ') OR
  9                 ndata (fullname,' || format_string (:name) || ')',
10                   1) > 0
11            order  by score (1) desc)
12  where  rownum <= 10;
FIRST_NAME MIDDLE_NAME LAST_NAME PHONE        EMAIL                         SCR
John       Black       Smith     123-456-7890 [email protected]         93
1 row selected.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> -- enter new values for :name and re-run query:
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> exec :name := 'B & V'
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> /
FIRST_NAME MIDDLE_NAME LAST_NAME PHONE        EMAIL                         SCR
Jane       Doe         word B &  321-654-0987 [email protected]           61
                       V word
1 row selected.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> exec :name := 'B and V'
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> /
FIRST_NAME MIDDLE_NAME LAST_NAME PHONE        EMAIL                         SCR
Jane       Doe         word B &  321-654-0987 [email protected]           80
                       V word
1 row selected.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> exec :name := 'B&V'
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> /
FIRST_NAME MIDDLE_NAME LAST_NAME PHONE        EMAIL                         SCR
Jane       Doe         word B &  321-654-0987 [email protected]           61
                       V word
1 row selected.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> exec :name := 'B something V'
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> /
no rows selected
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2>
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> -- cleanup:
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> drop function format_string;
Function dropped.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> exec ctx_ddl.drop_preference('ndata_wl');
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> exec ctx_thes.drop_thesaurus ('nicknames');
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> exec ctx_ddl.drop_section_group('namegroup');
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> exec ctx_ddl.drop_preference('empuds');
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> drop procedure empuds_proc;
Procedure dropped.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2> drop table emp;
Table dropped.
SCOTT@orcl_11gR2>