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<TITLE> FS Consulting - MPS Search Interface </TITLE> |
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<TR><TD VALIGN=TOP ALIGN=RIGHT COLSPAN=3> <A HREF="/"><IMG SRC="/demonstrations/search/images/banner.gif" ALT="Home" BORDER=0></A> </TD></TR> |
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<TR><TD VALIGN=TOP ALIGN=CENTER> <H2>How to Search a database</H> </TD> </TR> |
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<H3>Basic Searches:</H3> |
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<P>For basic searching, you just need to supply a word or a set of words |
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which will be used by the search engine to look documents. So you could |
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look for 'animals', 'information retrieval systems' or 'user interface design'. |
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The search engine will assume that the words are ORed together in the absence |
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of other operators.</P> |
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<H3>Wildcard Searches:</H3> |
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<P>You may also do wildcard searched, so you could look for 'comput*' and |
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the search engine will look for all words which begin with 'comput', so |
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it will search for 'computer', 'computing', 'computational', etc.</P> |
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<H3>Boolean Searches:</H3> |
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<P>Boolean searches are also supported, so you may do things like 'lowland |
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<B>AND</B> gorilla', or 'animals <B>NOT</B> gorilla'. Note that the operators |
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need to be in <B>UPPER CASE</B>.</P> |
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<P>You may also nest boolean searches using brackets, so you can do '(lowland |
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<B>OR</B> gorilla) AND animals'.</P> |
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<P>Booleans are implemented in a 'smart' way in that operators have precendence, |
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so 'microsoft <B>AND</B> graphical user interfaces' will be evaluated as |
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'microsoft <B>AND</B> (graphical <B>OR</B> user <B>OR</B> interfaces)'.</P> |
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<H3>Proximity Searches:</H3> |
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<P>Proximity searching is also available by using the <B>ADJ</B> operator. |
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So to find all documents in which 'microsoft' and 'windows' are adjacent, |
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you would use 'microsoft <B>ADJ</B> windows'.</P> |
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<P>A simpler alternative syntax for proximity searches is to use quotes, |
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so the search described above would look like "microsoft windows".</P> |
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<H3>Fielded Searches:</H3> |
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<P>Fielded searching is available for any database which supports it. To |
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restrict a search to a particular field, you need to enter the field name |
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followed by the equal sign, followed by the value you want to search, so |
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to look for 'marchionini' in the 'author' field, you would use 'author=marchionini'.</P> |
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<P>You can also combine field searches with brackets, so 'author=(marchionini |
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AND florance)' would search for records which have 'marchionini' and 'florance' |
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as authors.</P> |
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<H3>Range Searching:</H3> |
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<P>Range searching can also be performed on any numeric field, for example |
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to search for all documents that were published after 1993 (assuming that |
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the database had a 'date' field) you would use 'date>1993'.</P> |
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<P><HR ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=50%></P> |
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<H3>Putting it all together:</H3> |
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<P>So the following searches are legal:</P> |
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<PRE> |
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author=marchionini AND date>1993 |
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title=encyclopedia AND author=marchionini |
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(lowland AND gorilla) OR (animals AND plants)</PRE> |
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<P>this is not the same as:</P> |
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<PRE> |
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lowland AND gorilla OR animals AND plants</PRE> |
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<P>which would be evaluated as:</P> |
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<PRE> |
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lowland AND (gorilla OR animals) AND plants</PRE> |
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<HR ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=50%> |
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<H3>Soundex Searches:</H3> |
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<P>The use of 'soundex' is also supported in searches. This is useful for |
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names, for example, when one is unsure of the spelling or if there are a |
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number of spelling variants. For example if I were to look for documents |
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containing the name 'tognazini' and I were unsure whether it is spelt with |
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two 'n's and/or two 'z's, I would be able to use the soundex capability |
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to search for the documents as follows 'soundex[tognazini]'. The server |
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will expand the term and list all the variants in the query report. The |
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user could then browse it to look at them and decide which is the correct |
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spelling. You can also restrict the 'soundex' operation to certain fields |
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such as 'author=soundex[tognazini]'.</P> |
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<H3>Typographical Searches:</H3> |
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<P>The use of 'typographical variation' is also supported in searches. This |
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is useful when searching for words which could be mis-spelled, for example, |
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if 'animals' is spelled 'anmials'. This operator looks for simple typos |
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and juxtaposed letters. I would be able to use this capability to search |
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for the documents as follows 'typo[animals]'. You can also restrict the |
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'soundex' operation to certain fields such as 'author=typo[animals]'.</P> |
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<H3>Using the Forms Interface to Search:</H3> |
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<P>The forms provide a way of structuring the searches for the user so that |
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they dont have to remember what field are available in the different datababase. |
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The basic input field will accept any kind of query from the user, while |
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the titled fields will accept text for searching on that particular field |
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only. The user can fill in any of the fields and they will be ANDed together |
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before searching.</P> |
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<H3>Stemming:</H3> |
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<P>Two types of stemming are available, one is a plural stemmer (which is |
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used for both sample databases offered here), and the other is a Porter. |
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Both stemmers will handle US and UK English.</P> |
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