SHORT GUIDE TO DIALOG SEARCHING

(Revised June 7, 1999)

This short guide summarizes essential Dialog syntax. More Complete information is available in Searching Dialog: The Complete Guide and current issues of Chronolog . This guide is tailored for use with the ERIC database.

You are free to use either single or double quotes to literalize a term in Dialog:

? s 4567 Searches for the term 4567.

? s '4567' Searches for the term 4567.

? s "4567" Searches for the term 4567.

Quotation marks and wildcard characters can be used to search for phrases that contain words that must be restored.

? s food a?d drug inspectors Searches for the descriptor Food and drug inspectors

? s food 'and' drug inspectors Searches for the descriptor Food and drug inspectors

? s food "and" drug inspectors Searches for the descriptor Food and drug inspectors

? s and An error. Dialog will consider this the Boolean AND operator.

? s 'and' Searches for the term and.

? s "and" Searches for the term and.

Parentheses can drive the execution of certain parts of a query before other parts, but they have no special meaning around terms.

? s food Searches for the term food.

? s (food) Searches for the term food.

? The question mark is the DIALOG prompt.

To begin searching a database, use the Begin command:

? b 201

Dialog offers the OneSearch feature for the simultaneous searching of several databases.

? b 256, 232, 278

The three specified databases are searched.

? b newswire not 259, 260

? ds

This will display all the previous search strategy with results.

? logoff

? off

? disc

? stop

? bye

Any of these will log you off DIALOG.

The basic query is the "select" command.

? select popcorn

? s popcorn

The select command will report the number of hits for each element of a query without creating intermediate sets.

? select steps drug? or pharmaceutical?

? ss drug? or pharmaceutical?

The select steps command will create set numbers for the intermediate search results.

SINGLE WORD DESCRIPTORS AND IDENTIFIERS; SINGLE FREE-TEXT WORDS

? select television

Retrieves citations where "television" is (1) a major or minor descriptor or identifier, (2) part of a multiword descriptor or identifier, or (3) a single free-text word in titles and abstracts.

? s television/de

Retrieves citations where "television" is a major or minor descriptor, or part of multiword descriptors such as "television commercials."

? s television/de,maj

Retrieves citations where "television" is a major descriptor, or part of major multiword descriptors. The effect of the comma here is the Boolean operator And. Therefore, "television" must be a descriptor and at the major level. The "maj" suffix cannot be used indiscriminately with any other than indicated field suffixes. For example:

is incorrect syntax because in the ERIC database there are no "major" titles. The delimiter "maj" should only be used to modify descriptors and identifiers, and only when there are no other suffixes used. Thus the following is wrong:

Here the "ti" suffix will be ignored.

? s television/df

Retrieves citations where "television" is the major or minor full descriptor. Does not retrieve multiword descriptors containing the word "television."

? s television/df,maj

Retrieves citations where "television" is a major full descriptor.

? s television/id

Retrieves citations where "television" is a major or minor identifier, or part of multiword identifiers.

? s television/id,maj

Retrieves citations where "television" is a major identifier or part of major multiword identifiers.

? s television/if

Retrieves citations where "television" is a major or minor full identifier. Does not retrieve multiword identifiers containing the word "television."

? s television/if,maj

Retrieves citations where "television" is a major full identifier.

? s 33

Retrieves citations containing the number 33.

? s s33 and hot () dogs

Makes a back reference to set #33.

? s 's33' and warfare

Makes a reference to some technology or piece of equipment named the S33. Without the quotation marks it would be a back reference to set 33. Other search elements that could be confused with search statements must be entered in quotation marks as well.

? s 'E9'

Without the quotation marks, this could be confused as a reference to expand set #9.

? s 'R43'

Without the quotation marks, this could be confused as a reference to related set #43.

MULTIWORD DESCRIPTORS & IDENTIFIERS

? s elementary secondary education

? s fleas (pests)

? s freedom of speech

The general principle is that multiword descriptors can be entered just as they are found in the Eric Thesaurus. As a consequence, a descriptor phrase may contain punctuation, stopwords and even Boolean operators. These create certain hazardous situations, however, that the searcher must avoid:

(1) The slash and apostrophe. The problem with these forms of punctuation is that they are part of the command language. For example the slash is used to demarcate a suffix, e.g. "select dog/ti". Therefore the following slashed form asks the program to look for the argument "CAD" in the field "CAM":

If this were an ERIC Thesaurus descriptor, you would have to literalize it with quotation marks:

? s "CAD/CAM"

The apostrophe, or single quotation mark, is also part of the command language, permitting you to literalize some phrase, such as a descriptor, that has an embedded boolean operator, e.g. select 'food and drug inspectors'.

The Eric Thesaurus has gone to special lengths to reduce (perhaps remove) all instances of apostrophes. Thus the descriptor Alzheimer's Disease is now listed as simply Alzheimers Disease. Remember that this pertains only to descriptors and identifiers, not to free-text fields such as the title field. In the title field, one still finds Alzheimer's.

? s alzheimers disease [An appropriate search for the descriptor or identifier.]

? s alzheimer () s () disease [An appropriate search for the title and abstract fields.]

(2) Boolean operators.

? s food "and" drug inspectors

? s "food and drug inspectors"

? s 'publish or perish syndrome'

Multiword descriptors with internal boolean operators such as "and", "or" and "not" must hide the operator.

(3) Multiple use of parentheses in one query.

? s ((dogs and cats) or pets) and "fleas (pests)"

In the majority of cases, parentheses are not a problem. But if a parenthetical descriptor is used in a larger query that employs parentheses for logical purposes, then the parenthetical descriptor must be put in quotation marks.

BUILDING FREE-TEXT PHRASES

?s reference (w) work

?s reference () work

The "with" operator looks for "reference" to reside immediately before "work." This technique also handles multiword freetext terms with internal punctuation, such as "non-print," which must be searched as "non (w) print." The "with" operator can be calibrated; for example: (1w), (2w), (3w), and so on.

Note that "reference (3w) work" will retrieve "reference work," "reference [one word] work," "reference [two words] work," and "reference [three words] work."

? s 123 () 1

Searches for the number 123.1 for example.

? s 123 () 000

Searches for the number 123,000 for example.

? s S5 (w) library

The search terms of a previous set can be put in any proximity relationship to another set, a term, or a group of terms.

? s econom? (2n) recovery

The Near operator specifies that the two terms must occur next to each other but in any order. The near operator can be calibrated; for example: (1n), (2n), (3n) and so on. The above expression will capture Economic Recovery as well as Recovery of the Economy.

? s pollution (f) control

The Field operator specifies that both terms must occur in the same field. This query will find records that have these two terms somewhere in one of the basic index fields.

STOPWORDS AND RESTRICTED WORDS

Core Dialog syntax has 9 stopwords: An, And, By, For, From, Of, The, To, and With. These words are not indexed.

In addition to the stopword list, there is a list of restricted words: "and", "or", "not", "from", "files", and "steps". These words are restricted because they are either a Boolean operator or part of the command language.

No !! ? select and

No !! ? select "and"

Ok ? select food "and" drug inspectors

Other examples include but are not limited to: Tool and Die Makers, Track and Field, Trade and Industrial Teachers, Search and Seizure, Science and Society.

No !! ? select or

Ok ? select "or"

Ok ? select publish "or" perish issue

No !! ? select not

Ok ? select "not"

No !! ? select steps

Ok ? select "steps"

Ok ? select appropriate () steps

No !! ? select files

Ok ? select "files"

Ok ? select data () files

No !! ? select from

No !! ? select "from"

Ok ? select dog () food from 1, 5, 67

LOGICAL OPERATORS

? s softball and football

Retrieves all citations that contain the word "softball" and also the word "football."

? s athletics not (softball or football)

Retrieves all citations that contain the word "athletics" then removes all the citations that contain either "softball" or "football."

The operator precedence order is:

(A) Sub document operators:

(1) proximity operators

(a) With

(b) Near

. (c) Field

(B) Document level operators

(2) Not

(3) And

(4) Or

Multiple sequential occurrences of the same proximity operator are processed left to right:

? s european () economic () community

Unless you restrict the processing with parentheses, the proximity operators are executed in precedence order without regard to their sequence in the query. Thus in the query

? s East () Germany (f) West () Germany

the two With operators will be executed before the Subfield operator.

PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES

? s jn=reading horizons

Phrased indexed additional indexes are searched by entering the exact phrase. You may also truncate such phrases at the right:

? s jn=reading hor?

? s cs=(general(w)electric and portland)

Word indexed additional indexes can be searched in a variety of ways, as long as parentheses are used.

? s cs,sp=electric

Multiple prefixes can also be used, as long as they are separated with commas. The comma acts as a Boolean OR operator.

? s teachers/ti or students/ti

? s (teachers and (college or school))/ti,ab

Suffix codes qualify a term or group of terms. The boolean operator used with multiple field codes such as "ti,ab" acts like the OR operator.

? s liability or malpractice/ti

Without parentheses the suffix qualification applies only to the immediately preceding term. Here only malpractice is qualified to the title field.

? s (liability/ab or malpractice)/ti

Suffix qualification inside parentheses take precedence and are not qualified by suffix qualifiers outside the parentheses. Only malpractice is qualified to the title field.

? s S23/ti

Suffix codes may limit the results of a previous set. In this example, it is assumed that set 23 includes results with a title field.

TRUNCATION

? s aggress?

Retrieves terms with the root "aggress."

? s cat? ?

Retrieves all words with zero or one letter added to the root "cat" Note that there is exactly one space between the two question marks.

? s cand???

Retrieves all words with the root "cand" and up to three letters following.

? s wom?n

Retrieves all five-letter words beginning with WOM and ending with N and containing any character between the M and the N.

BROWSING INDEXES

Use the Expand command to display indexes. You can view either the Basic index or one of the additional indexes.

? expand exponential

? e exponential

These give an expand display for the word "exponential" from the Basic index.

? e au=debussy

Gives an expand display for the name debussy in the author index.

Expand displays are referenced by "e" numbers:

Ref Items Index-term

E1 5 Exponentiability

E2 13 Exponentiable

E3 13389 *Exponential

E4 190 Exponential and Trigonometric Functions

You can select one or more of these items by using the "e" numbers:

?s e1

?s e4, e6, e7-e9

You can page further on in the index:

? page

? p

Do not use truncation, proximity operators or suffix codes in an expand command as an any of these will be treated as a literal part of the target.

SHOWING RECORDS

Use the Type command to show records at the screen.

? type s12/6/1-8

? t s12/6/1-8

Types the first eight records in format 6 from set 12.

AUTHORS' NAMES

? s au=reagan, r?

Searches the author index for anyone named Reagan with a first name beginning with the letter R (e.g., Ralph Reagan, Rosalind Reagan). The author field is phrase indexed, meaning that it is entered as one long string. Leaving out any parts, even the comma and space can result in zero hits. The following examples show the use of the question mark as wild-card character, as well as a truncation symbol:

? s au=re?gan, r?

? s au=reagan??r?

? s au=a?hearn, michael f?

Will search for author Michael F. A'Hearn