Unusual ranking results

[kevin31]

Here are two queries that are logically equivalent:

select $rank, FormID from tForms where TextBlob likep 'something' and (FormType = 1 OR FormType = 2);

select $rank, FormID from tForms where (FormType = 1 OR FormType = 2) and TextBlob likep 'something';

These two queries give the same results in the same order by rank, but the ranks are completely different. The ranks given by the 1st query are significantly greater. Can you explain this? Thanks.

My version is
Texis Web Script (Vortex) Copyright (c) 1996-2001 Thunderstone - EPI, Inc.
Commercial Version 3.01.992447526 of Jun 13, 2001 (i686-intel-winnt-32)

[John]

It may depend on what indexes you have, and how they are used. The ranks could come either purely from indexes, or a post process, and it is possible that they compute differently.