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Lesson 1: Choosing a Database

Lesson 2: Planning a Search Strategy

Lesson 3: Using Dialog Search Commands

Lesson 4: Managing Search Results

Lesson 5: Refining a Search (Part 1)

Lesson 6: Refining a Search (Part 2)

Lesson 7: Wrapping Up the Course

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Proximity Connectors

Step 3: Using Proximity Connectors to search phrases

Notice some of my search terms are two-word phrases. Dialog provides many different connectors for searching words that are adjacent to or near each other. This technique is called proximity searching. Proximity searching specifies the relative nearness of search terms to each other.

We use proximity connectors most commonly in the following situations:

Searching an exact phrase appearing anywhere in a record.
Searching phrases that contain stop words, punctuation, hyphens, or other special characters. Tip 2-2
Narrowing a search to increase the precision of a search. Tip 2-3

The most commonly used proximity connectors are shown in the table below.

Connector	Definition	Example	Words Retrieved
(N)	Searches adjacent terms, in either order	fiber?(n)optic?	fiber optics optical fiber
(W)	Searches adjacent terms, in the EXACT order	inter(w)satellite	inter satellite inter-satellite
(#N) or (#W)	Allows additional terms to occur between words	antenna(2n)array	antenna array antenna phased array antenna-phased array phased array antenna
(S)	Restricts words to the same paragraph	telecommunication?(s)sales	Sales in the telecommunications industry have increased...

To Learn More about proximity connectors, click the Learn More icon.

Quick Check 2: Look at the search terms we just identified in Quick Check 1 to see where proximity connectors should be inserted. Add the connectors to your search sheet, and click the Check Yourself Icon to see the answers. Check yourself

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2-4

Search Tip 2-2:

A word containing punctuation—such as a hyphen or apostrophe—cannot be SELECTed with the punctuation intact; punctuation must be replaced with the (W) connector.

Example:

non(w)stick

Retrieves:

non stick
non-stick

Search Tip 2-3:

The (S) proximity connector is especially good to use when searching complete-text records.

Since the Dialog system searches every word of the text, using the (S) connector requires words to be in one paragraph where the subject discussed is usually similar.

Learn More #2: Proximity Connectors

1. (N) Connector: To search a phrase without regard to the order of the words, we use the (N) connector between words. For example, IMAG?(n)SEGMENT? retrieves records with the phrases: IMAGE SEGMENTATION and SEGMENTED IMAGE.

Example:	Retrieves:
language(n)script?	language script scripted language

2. (W) Connector: To search an exact phrase, we use the (W) connector between words in the phrase. For example, NUMERIC(W)CONTROL retrieves records where the two words appear next to each other and in this exact order.

Example:	Retrieves:
low(w)power(w)electron	low power electron low-power electron

3. (#N, #W) Connectors: Both the (W) and (N) connectors may have a number inserted—for example, (2w), (3n), etc.—which specifies a maximum number of intervening words that are allowed. It is almost always better to use (N) with a number: (1N), (2N), etc.

Example:	Retrieves:
image(3n)analysis	image analysis analysis of an image image colour analysis
fiber(1w)composite	fiber composite fiber reinforced composite

4. (S) Connector: Using the (S) connector between terms requires that they be in the same paragraph.

Example:	Retrieves:
telecommunication?(s)sales	Telecommunications in the same paragraph as the word sales