More advanced Dialog

1
More advanced Dialog

• Commands to use after you have mastered the
  basics.
• Lecture 9
• Libr 244-11
• Daniel D. Stuhlman

2
Combine

• C for combine is an alternate command used to
  combine sets. It saves a bit of typing time.
  With it you use the symbols for the logical
  operators.
• is AND (intersection of sets)
• is OR (result is in either sets)
• - is NOT (excludes sets)
• For example
• C 14 this would combine sets 1 and 4 with AND
  logic
• C 25 would combine sets 2 OR 5
• C 5-3 would exclude NOT set 3 out of set 5

3
Limit and limitall

• Using a limit suffix reduces the size of a set
  and thus the amount of CPU time used. Limits are
  database specific and you must check the
  BlueSheets to find out which limits you can use
  in each File. Usually all of the Basic Index
  suffixes can be used as well as the Limit
  suffixes. A common limit suffix is one for
  language. If you only read English there is no
  point in getting items in other languages. The
  form of entry is not consistent so check the
  BlueSheets. Limits can be used with set numbers
  as long as the original set did not include AND
  or NOT logic.
• Example s library/eng would limit to English
  language articles only

4
Limitall

• Limitall is used at the beginning of the search
  when you know you want to apply a limiter to your
  entire search. You can cancel it with a Begin,
  Logoff, or the command limitall cancel.
• B 15Limitall/eng
• This would put you in File 15 and limit all sets
  to English language

5
Current

• Another command that can limit your search by
  date is Current.
• Current restricts your search to the most recent
  years records.
• It is entered as part of your Begin command at
  the start of a search and will limit your entire
  search in that File to the number of years you
  have specified.
• Format Begin 15 current
• The above will limit a search of File 15 to this
  year so far plus all of 2003.
• Current3 will include the past 3 years plus all
  of 2004.
• Current5 will include the past 5 years plus all
  of 2004.
• It is not the most specific way to limit a search
  but it is an easy way to limit to the past few
  years if that is sufficient for your query.
• Current and Current1 do exactly the same thing.

6
Sort

• Sort may be used in some but not all Files on
  Dialog. If the BlueSheets indicate SORT options,
  you know you can use SORT. It allows you to
  arrange your search output in a way that would be
  more useful to you.
• You do your search in the usual way and work with
  it until you have a set that meets your needs.
  On Dialog the normal order of items in a set is
  in reverse chronological order with the most
  recent items as the first items in a set. If you
  want the articles in this order there is no need
  to use SORT. If you want them in any other
  order, use SORT. The format of the command is
• Sort set/all/sort codes separated by commas

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Sort s3/all/au,ti
Sort s3/all/au,ti would create a new sorted set
that would be in order alphabetically by author,
then by title within each author. The sort
command will always put alphabetical order a to
z. If you want then in descending order (z to a)
you follow your sort codes with a comma and the
letter d. Sort s3/all/sa,d would create a new
sorted set that would have the highest values at
the top.
8
There is a command available in some Files that
will limit your search to only the records that
were added since the last database update. There
is only one way to enter the command, there is no
other form, i.e. S ud9999 Do not substitute any
other date for the 9999 and do remember to use
the select command with it. This limits your
search to the most recent items in the File. If
you want, you can enter this command right after
your Begin command and then issue the following
command to make it apply to all of your search in
that File b 5 s ud9999 limitall/s1 Your
s ud9999 will have created set 1.
9
Sort
Sort can be used to help create bibliographies in
bibliographical files, to sort business records
by some criteria such as number of employees,
salaries, sales, to sort addresses by city and
zip code, etc. Again you must check the Blue
Sheets to find out which codes you can sort on in
each file. Once you have your sorted set you can
type or display it just as you would any set.
10
Rank
Rank is a command in Dialog that lets you see the
most frequently cited term or author from a
search set you have created. It can help you
revise your search strategy, pick the best term
or most frequently cited author. Rank works only
in files that use phrase indexing and only in the
fields in those files that are phrase indexed.
Again look at the Blue Sheets for type of
indexing for each field. Do the search in the
standard fashion. Then enter the command for
rank as below rank field code ex rank
au to rank by author
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Rank 2
Rank will reference the set immediately preceding
it so you do not need to indicate the set number.
The display will be similar to an expand display
and includes your options for looking at the rank
below the display. These commands work only
within a rank display. You can simply read the
information or save it and use it in a search
statement. You must EXIT to get out of rank and
once you do, the rank is gone and you cannot get
back to it. You can recreate it, of course, but
that is costly.
12
?b34 File 34SciSearch(R) Cited Ref Sci
1990-2003/Apr W1 (c) 2001 Inst for Sci
Info   Set Items Description ---
----- ----------- ?s fractal/19952001
25717 FRACTAL 5723474 PY1995
PY2001 S1 13045 FRACTAL/19952001
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?rank auRANK will process the first 10000
records or 10000 terms,whichever is reached
first.Started processing RANK...Ranking 500 of
10000 records... (rest of ranking eliminated to
save space)DIALOG RANK Results------------------
--RANK S1/1-13045   Field AU  File(s)
34(Rank fields found in 9997 records -- 18119
unique terms) Page 1 of 2265RANK No.  Items 
Term--------  -----  ----    1       30  
SHALAEV VM    2       30   STANLEY HE   
3       28   GIONA M    4       27   SADANA
A    5       26   LAI YC    6       25   HAVLIN
S    7       23   LABINI FS    8       22  
PIETRONERO LP   next page      Pn Jump to
page nP- previous page  M   More Options    
Exit Leave RANKTo view records from RANK,
enter VIEW followed by RANK number,format, and
item(s) to display, e.g., VIEW 2/9/ALL.
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The previous slide showed you a rank search
looking for the most frequently cited authors of
articles on fractals in the Science Citation
database. Only the first line of the actual
processing is presented as it is just a continual
list of which records it is processing at the
time and has no affect on what you do to complete
a rank.
15
Report
REPORT is a command in Dialog that is used to
turn your search output into a table or columns
of data from defined fields. It is available
only in a limited number of Files and you must
check the Blue Sheets for the availability of the
Report command. It is most common in Directory
databases. To use Report, first do your search in
the usual fashion, then do any Sort you want to
do. Then you use the following command
format report set/codes for report
columns/item numbers For example report
s3/co,st,te/1-10 would create a display for set
3, the first ten items in columns headed company
state telephone You must watch the length of the
display you ask for or you will likely get an
error message. The default is 75 characters
(counts spaces too) for horizontal and 22 lines
for vertical. If you have an extra large screen
or printer, you can change the horizontal and
vertical display. To do this, use the Set
command.
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Report 2

• Set h 120 would set the horizontal display to
  120 characters
• Set v 25 would set the vertical display to 25
  lines
• If you set v to zero you will get a continuous
  displayuseful only if you are capturing the
  display for later printing.
• You can set both at one time using the following
  command
• set screen 75 25
• This would set the horizontal to 75 characters
  and the vertical to 25
• You must use the Set command before you enter the
  Report command

17
Map

• MAP is a command in Dialog used to save a search
  based on a field that could then be searched in a
  different database. It was originally designed
  for use with Chemical numbers but it will also
  work on other numeric fields. Again it is
  available in only a limited number of databases
  and then only in a limited number of fields.
  Check the Blue Sheets.

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Map 2
First do the search and get it correct. Then use
the following format map field code set
number For example map dn s1 would map all
the DUNs numbers from a search in a business
database. The result of a Map search is a saved
search number similar to that you get with Save
temp. You could then begin another business
database and EXS your save search code to search
on all these DUNs numbers in the new File. Map
combines DUNs numbers (or whatever you have
searched) with OR logic.