14. A method for obtaining selected records from a structured database, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a search query including a plurality of attribute/value pairs, the search query containing no explicit OR statements; comparing said search query to records in the structured database; for each attribute/value pair in the query; storing an indication of the records that match that attribute/value pair; identifying any record that matches every attribute/value pair in said search query and for any such identified record assigning a highest priority ranking; identifying each record matching at least one of the attribute/value pairs in the query, but less than all of the attribute/value pairs in the query; and after said step of identifying each record, automatically assigning ranking based on a semantic distance of the record from the entire search query.
14. A method for obtaining selected records from a structured database, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a search query including a plurality of attribute/value pairs, the search query containing no explicit OR statements; comparing said search query to records in the structured database; for each attribute/value pair in the query; storing an indication of the records that match that attribute/value pair; identifying any record that matches every attribute/value pair in said search query and for any such identified record assigning a highest priority ranking; identifying each record matching at least one of the attribute/value pairs in the query, but less than all of the attribute/value pairs in the query; and after said step of identifying each record, automatically assigning ranking based on a semantic distance of the record from the entire search query. 15. The method of claim 14 wherein said semantic distance includes the number of attribute/value pairs matching the document and the relative frequency with which one of the matching attribute/value pairs matches other records in the structured database.