Scope

• Dialog's search-and-retrieval software has rules for the specific order of execution of operators.
• The enables the searcher to control the exact manner in which the search is conducted.
• The most important things to remember is that anything inside of parentheses are executed first.

  Example: ss engineering and (bridge? ? or span? ?) but not united()states

  • In this example, the words "bridge" and "span" (and their plurals, though "bridge? ?" also finds "bridget" and "bridged") are searched for individually first.
  • Then each of the words is individually combined with the word "engineering."
  • Finally, all records that contain the phrase "united states" are excluded.

Order of Execution

1. Anything in parentheses ( ) (parenthetical phrases)

 

2. (w), (n), (s), (l), or (f) (proximity operators)

 

3. not

 

4. and

 

5. or