MySql FullTextSearch in Boolean mode returning returning results shorter than ft_min_word_len

Question

I am using Mysql FTS query as below in Boolean Mode

SELECT org.org_name FROM org 
WHERE MATCH org.org_name AGAINST ('an*' in BOOLEAN MODE);

and this gives me the following result

+--------------------------+
| org_name                 |
+--------------------------+
| Chairs and Table Company |
| and                      |
+--------------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

However, my understanding is that all results less than ft_min_word_len are ignored and in my case, ft_min_word_len is 4 as shown in the below results from this query (show variables like 'ft%';)

+--------------------------+----------------+
| Variable_name            | Value          |
+--------------------------+----------------+
| ft_boolean_syntax        | + -><()~*:""&| |
| ft_max_word_len          | 84             |
| ft_min_word_len          | 4              |
| ft_query_expansion_limit | 20             |
| ft_stopword_file         | (built-in)     |
+--------------------------+----------------+

I am wondering why the results like 'and' are being returned if my understanding is correct. Thanks.

Answer 1

FULLTEXT searching is available in both InnoDB and MyISAM tables. But, they have different sets of variables controlling them, for example.

MyISAM                   InnoDB
ft_min_word_len     innodb_ft_min_token_size
ft_max_word_len     innodb_ft_max_token_size

SHOW TABLE STATUS WHERE Name = 'tablename' shows you the table's engine.

This may be helpful reading.