Refinement counts on an attribute that is multi-or indicate how many records in the result set will be tagged with the refinement if you select it. When no selections are made yet, the refinement count equals the total number of records in the result set if that refinement were selected. However, for subsequent refinements, the refinement count may differ from the total results set.
Consider the following example that illustrates this use case. A cuisine refinement is configured as multi-or. In the data set, there are 2 records that have assignments only to a Chinese attribute, and 3 records that have assignments only to a Japanese attribute. There is also 1 record that has assignments on both of these attributes.
Records | Assignment on a Chinese attribute | Assignment on a Japanese attribute |
---|---|---|
1 | x | |
2 | x | |
3 | x | x |
4 | x | |
5 | x | |
6 | x |
If the user first selects only Chinese, the navigation state shows that there is one remaining follow-on refinement (Japanese) with the refinement count of 4 records (3 with only Japanese assignment on a attribute and 1 that has both Chinese and Japanese attribute assignments on them). When the user navigates on that refinement, the resulting record list includes all 6 records. This illustrates that a record count for a Japanese refinement shows the number of records (4) tagged with that refinement, within the entire record set (6).