Proximity operators are used to
search for words and/or phrases that you expects to occur within a
certain distance of each other in text.
Example: The words
"doctor" and "examination" could occur in the
following ways in relation to each other.
The examination by
the doctor was ....
The doctor conducted
the examination in the ....
The court questioned
whether the examination that was conducted by the
doctor was ...
Operator
Construction
Proximity operators contain two
components:
A letter that indicates the
direction of the relationship between 2 words and/or
phrases.
A number to specify the
expected maximum distance in words between 2 words and/or
phrases.
Operators in
InfoTrac
Wn
(Example: w7)
Usage: The
W
(within) operator finds records in which the word that
follows the operatorWn must occur within n
words after the word
that precedes the operator
Example: examination
W7
doctor finds:
The examination by
the doctor was ....
The court questioned
whether the examination that was conducted by the
doctor was ...
BUT
DOES NOT FIND
The doctor conducted
the examination in the ....
Nn
(Example:
n7)
Usage: The
N
(near) operator finds records in which the words on
either side of the operator Nn must occur within n
words from each
other.
Example: examination
N7
doctor finds:
The examination by
the doctor was ....
The doctor conducted
the examination in the ....
The court questioned
whether the examination that was conducted by the
doctor was ..
General Rules for
Usage
Proximity operators can be
used only when searching indexes made up of individual words,
such as the following indexes:
Title
Abstracts
Text
Subjects
The operators are most useful
when used to search indexes of large areas of text, such as an
abstract or words in text index.
Proximity operators can only be
used between two words and/or phrases
They can not be used between a
word and an expression within nesting operators
(parentheses):
Example: The following is not
valid:
veterinarians
w10
(cats or dogs)
It can be rewritten to work in
the following format: