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Expand Command

It is very helpful as I search names, for example, company names or executive names, to use the EXPAND command. Learn More

I will use this command to find information on Apple Computer. To use EXPAND, I just follow two simple steps:

Step 1:

Use EXPAND (E) followed by the two-letter prefix (CO=) and the company name.

For our search on Apple Computer, I enter the EXPAND command in the command text box followed by the two-letter prefix co= and apple computer so it looks like this:

  expand co=apple computer

And we get a list of company names in an EXPAND list.

expand

From the list of company names in our EXPAND list we can SELECT the appropriate entry for Apple Computer. It is not unusual to see variations in the spelling of a company name.

Step 2:

I enter the SELECT command and the appropriate E number(s) for the company name Apple Computer (e3, e5:e8) in the command text box as shown above. Note that the SELECT command may be shortened to just the letter "s" as shown. Learn More

  select e3, e5:e8

Proximity Connectors (w) or (n)
An alternate technique to retrieve a company name is often used when the company name contains internal punctuation, when you are unsure of the word order of the name, and when there is no company name field in the database.

For this search strategy append the suffix /co to the company name. Remember for names that are more than one word, you must insert proximity connectors (w) or (n) between the words.

Example:

Search for:
W R Grace select w( )r( )grace/co
Anheuser Busch s anheuser(w)busch/co

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Authoritative Answers Enriched by ProQuest

Learn More #2:

The EXPAND command allows us to see how a term is entered in the index of a database. In Additional Indexes names and numbers must be entered exactly the way they appear in the database index.

The EXPAND command (abbreviated E) is used to verify the spelling, punctuation, and spacing of names and to view alphabetically similar entries of those names.

The EXPAND command displays a list of terms with the number of unique records containing each term.

EXPAND displays the first 50 entries in the index. We can use the scroll bar to view all 50 entries.


When to Use It:

Use EXPAND to verify the spelling of a term and to view similar entries.

Examples:
expand co=microsoft
e co=microsoft

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Learn More #3:

The example below illustrates several SELECT statements. I can use the SELECT command followed by any search terms or set numbers.


When to Use It:

Use SELECT to create a set of records (e.g., s1) that contains the specified terms.

Examples:
select e4
s merger?
s s1

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