Support : Dialog Search Aids : Successful Searching : SELECT : Search Terms

SELECT (continued)

Search Terms

Single-Term SELECT Statements

Command Format:      SELECT <term>

SELECT followed by a single search term produces a numbered set indicating the number of records (or "items") in the database that contain that term. A single search term may contain more than one word.

Word-Indexed Search Terms
A single, unqualified, word-indexed search term is retrieved from any field contained in the Basic Index of a database. You may enter any single word, number, or alphanumeric expression as a search term in a SELECT statement, with the exception of the nine Dialog stop words:

AN AND

BY FOR

FROM OF

THE TO

WITH

You can search for a word root by using the ? (question mark) truncation symbol. Use as much of the word root as possible to avoid false retrieval.

• To SELECT a word-indexed search term from the Basic Index using truncation:

?select forecast?
      S1   16106  FORECAST?

Punctuation
Any punctuation in a word-indexed search term (e.g., a hyphen or an apostrophe) must be replaced with a proximity operator, such as the (W) or (N) operator (e.g., SELECT CD(W)ROM).

• To SELECT a word-indexed search term containing punctuation (e.g., long-range):

?select long(w)range
      S2    2681  LONG(W)RANGE

Phrase-Indexed Search Terms
A single, unqualified, phrase-indexed search term is retrieved from those fields in the Basic Index whose content is phrase-indexed (usually the Descriptor and Identifier fields). The search terms can be SELECTed as complete phrases, including punctuation and spacing.

Note: To prevent misinterpretation, certain expressions must be placed in quotation marks to be SELECTed in a phrase search term, e.g., AND FROM NOT OR E followed by a number (e.g., E12) R followed by a number (e.g., R6) S followed by a number (e.g., S3) Phrases that contain punctuation marks, such as slashes or colons, must also be placed in quotation marks (see Appendix A for a full discussion of punctuation; see Appendix B for information on restricted words).

• To SELECT a phrase-indexed search term:

?select long-range forecast evaluation/de
      S3      23  LONG-RANGE FORECAST EVALUATION/DE

Prefix-Coded Search Terms
Additional Indexes that are word-indexed consist of single-term entries preceded by the prefix code for the field and require the use of proximity operators, e.g., CS=(BOSTON(2N)UNIV?). Phrase-indexed entries in Additional Indexes must be searched exactly as they appear (including punctuation and spacing), using the field prefix code (e.g., AU=THOMPSON, ROBERT P.) Use the EXPAND command to determine the exact format of Additional Index entries.

• To SELECT a prefix-coded, word-indexed search term:

?select cs=(boston(2n)univ?)  <—Note: CS= corporate source
      S4    3645  CS=(BOSTON(2N)UNIV?)

• To SELECT a prefix-coded, phrase-indexed search term:

?select au=preisendorfer, rudolph?
      S5      32  AU=PREISENDORFER, RUDOLPH?  <—Note: AU=  
                                                             represents author

• To SELECT a phrase-indexed search term requiring quotation marks:

?select "climate and environment"
      S6       6  "CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT"

(Multiple-Term SELECT Statements) 

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