Information Retrieval (IR) is the activity of obtaining information system resources that are relevant to an information need from a collection of those resources. Searches can be based on full-text or other content-based indexing.
Boolean Retrieval is a type of Information Retrieval. In this model, a query is made up of terms connected by three logical operators: AND, OR, and NOT. Here’s a brief explanation of each:
These operators make it possible to get more precise results that are closely related to the information need.
Boolean retrieval model: A model for information retrieval that allows users to pose queries as Boolean expressions of terms, and returns documents that match the query exactly.
Inverted index: A data structure that maps each term to a list of documents that contain it, allowing efficient processing of Boolean queries by intersecting or merging the postings lists of the query terms.
Query optimization: The process of choosing the best order and method for evaluating a Boolean query, based on the statistics and structure of the index and the query.
Extended Boolean model: A model that incorporates additional operators and features, such as term proximity and phrase search, to enhance the expressiveness and effectiveness of Boolean queries.