Maximum boost factor

Question

Hi,

What is the maxiimum boost factor value for a word in Lucene.Net? I believe default value is 1.0f

Thanks!

Answer 1

I've found evidence on Google that it's at least 4... but I can't find any further information as to what the ceiling is. Some of the document importance descriptions use 4 as an example which is where I drew my conclusion.

However the user documentation defines that it must be a positive number which may be less than 1 (presumably, given some of the examples it may also not be less than 1).

Draw from that as you will.

Answer 2

It can be any positive number. Of course, if you pick an unreasonable number, like Float.POSITIVE_INFINITY (or the .NET equivalent), you'll end up with some crazy scores. Generally, you want to look at your boosts as a percentage: 1.0F is 100%, meaning no boost up or down. 1.2F is 120%, a little boost up; 0.5 is 50%, a fairly significant boost down.