What punctuation is "legal" in a query?

[Paul Friedman <pf...@macromedia.com>]

I have posted several questions/examples regarding QueryParser throwing exceptions when the query string contains various punctuation characters.  I have been downloading the nightly builds hoping that my problems would be solved, unfortunately, only some of the problems I have reported have been addressed via fixes to the code or responses to my posting.  

I understand that some punctuation is reserved, '*' for prefix query and '[' ']' for range query.

1.  Is any other punctuation reserved?  Is this documented anywhere?

2.  Shouldn't any "non-reserved" punctuation be legal query syntax (i.e. it shouldn't cause a parse error)?

    Example: 

        A document contains a field whose value is a relative directory path: "cooldocs/myfavoritetopics"
        
        Parsing the following query causes a parse error: "relativepath:cooldocs/myfavoritetopics"

Some other punctuation seems to work fine (i.e. '.' and '_'), that's why I'm confused as to which punctuation should or shouldn't work.

I have attached a test case that causes the error.  I am using StandardAnalyzer and the Nov. 24 nightly build.

Sorry to be so persistent about this, but query syntax containing punctuation (especially '.', '_', '/') is extremely critical to the product I am working on.

Thanks.
Paul Friedman  

Re: What punctuation is "legal" in a query?

[Brian Goetz <br...@quiotix.com>]

> Sorry to be so persistent about this, but query syntax containing punctuation (especially '.', '_', '/') is extremely critical to the product I am working on.

You are of course correct that the syntax should be documented, and
I'm sure in time, it will.  We've added individual elements (some at
your request), and I agree that it should be more tolerant (I'm more
used to writing parsers for compilers than for user-level tools.

Bear in mind that the query parser is a convenience, which gives you
an 80% solution for 20% of the work.  If you've got specific
requirements, maybe you should use the query classes directly?


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