Tailoring Table Retrieval from a Field-aware Hybrid Matching Perspective

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Li, Da, Bi, Keping, Guo, Jiafeng, Cheng, Xueqi
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Li, Da
Bi, Keping
Guo, Jiafeng
Cheng, Xueqi
author_facet Li, Da
Bi, Keping
Guo, Jiafeng
Cheng, Xueqi
contents Table retrieval, essential for accessing information through tabular data, is less explored compared to text retrieval. The row/column structure and distinct fields of tables (including titles, headers, and cells) present unique challenges. For example, different table fields have varying matching preferences: cells may favor finer-grained (word/phrase level) matching over broader (sentence/passage level) matching due to their fragmented and detailed nature, unlike titles. This necessitates a table-specific retriever to accommodate the various matching needs of each table field. Therefore, we introduce a Table-tailored HYbrid Matching rEtriever (THYME), which approaches table retrieval from a field-aware hybrid matching perspective. Empirical results on two table retrieval benchmarks, NQ-TABLES and OTT-QA, show that THYME significantly outperforms state-of-the-art baselines. Comprehensive analyses confirm the differing matching preferences across table fields and validate the design of THYME.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_02251
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tailoring Table Retrieval from a Field-aware Hybrid Matching Perspective
Li, Da
Bi, Keping
Guo, Jiafeng
Cheng, Xueqi
Information Retrieval
Table retrieval, essential for accessing information through tabular data, is less explored compared to text retrieval. The row/column structure and distinct fields of tables (including titles, headers, and cells) present unique challenges. For example, different table fields have varying matching preferences: cells may favor finer-grained (word/phrase level) matching over broader (sentence/passage level) matching due to their fragmented and detailed nature, unlike titles. This necessitates a table-specific retriever to accommodate the various matching needs of each table field. Therefore, we introduce a Table-tailored HYbrid Matching rEtriever (THYME), which approaches table retrieval from a field-aware hybrid matching perspective. Empirical results on two table retrieval benchmarks, NQ-TABLES and OTT-QA, show that THYME significantly outperforms state-of-the-art baselines. Comprehensive analyses confirm the differing matching preferences across table fields and validate the design of THYME.
title Tailoring Table Retrieval from a Field-aware Hybrid Matching Perspective
topic Information Retrieval
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.02251