Use of the Architext Query Language

The query lanuage allows the user to perform queries and combine the results in a number of different ways. The basic syntax is lisp-like and uses s-expressions enclosed in parens. An example query follows:

(& (concept clintons policy on bosnia) (strict gorazde))

The '&' operator is the intersection/and operator, and is desribed in more detail below. The above query would return the documents containing both the concept 'clintons policy on bosnia' and the word 'gorazde.'

Operators available in the architextSearch query language:

"strict", "s", "S"
strict queries take a single word argument and only return those documents containing the specified word. For example: (& (s clinton) (s marijuana) (! (s inhale))) would return only those articles containing the words clinton and marijuana but not the word inhale.
"concept", "c", "C"
this is the most powerful operator, and it forms the basis of the Architext search capability. After the command word, the user can enter any number of words as the query. For example: '(concept intellectual property rights)'. This will return those documents containing the concept 'intellectual property rights'
"&", "|", "!"
These operators are essentially boolean/set type logical operators, and can be used to combine the results of other query operators. For example, the expression (& (c homelessness) (! (s vagrancy))) would return all the documents containing the concept 'homelessness', but not the word 'vagrancy.'

It is important to emphasize that the best method for doing queries with architextSearch is to simply use the 'concept' operator followed by a natural language query. You can experiment with the 'strict' operator and the boolean operators after you become more familiar with the query language, but, in general, it is best (and easiest) to simply use the concept query operator.

ArchiText can be reached at architxt@netcom.com