CODEWITHSUNDEEP
textprecisioninformation-retrieval
Bikash Gyawali
Bikash Gyawali

Reputation: 1058

Is it OK to have a precision value of 100% in text retrieval system?

Since the formula for precision is :

retrieved_and_relevant/(retrieved_and_relevant+retrieved_and_irrelevant)

I am wondering if the value for precision in a text-retrieval system will ever be different from 100%. I think so because, all we programmers put a hell lot of effort in not forgetting to squeeze each and every text of all documents out there. So, when a query text is fired into the text retrieval system, it will output all the documents containing the query text. This means that all those documents retrieved are relevant documents; essentially making the score of 100%.

Is this true or am I missing some point ?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 381

Answers (1)

Josh Weatherly
Josh Weatherly

Reputation: 1740

You're slightly confused on the concept behind precision.

A simple example would be searching for the terms iraq war. Depending on how the search engine is designed and the results may or may not be what the user is looking for. It might return

  • Wars that Iraq, the country is involved in
  • A fictional story about a soldier in the current Iraq war,
  • A news article that talks about various wars and their financial impact.

Each document could be completely different and contain the exact search terms, but might be irrelevant to what the user was looking for.

The search engine would definitely LIKE to have a precision of 100% but it's very rare that this is the case.

Precision can ONLY be determined by the user who performs the search query itself as they are the only one who knows without a doubt that a result is relevant or not. It's definitely something to strive for, but don't believe it will always equal 100%.

Upvotes: 1

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