MEMDB

Searching for Words: Examples

This page exemplifies searches on any field that
contains text, in any MEMDB database.
Basic Searches
Complex Searches
Lower Case vs. Upper Case
Diacritics (i.e., accented characters)

Basic Searches

          Exact Matches: Use quotation marks.

"rye" This query searches for the records whose field is exactly equal to rye.

For example, in the field "Product" of the Price (Posthumus) data set:
  • Rye will be matched,
  • but not Brown Rye and Prussian rye.
"brown rye" This query searches for the records whose field is exactly equal to brown rye.

For example, in the field "Product" of the Price (Posthumus) data set:
  • Brown Rye will be matched,
  • but not Rye and Prussian rye.


         Partial Matches: Use plain character strings without quotationmarks.

gold This query searches for the records whose field contains the characters gold, among other characters.

For example, in the field "Coin/Ratio" of the Currency Exchange (Metz) dataset:
  • Gold will be matched,
  • as well as Goldgulden, and Rechengeld/Gold/Feingewicht.



Complex Searches     (More than one word or term)

"Avignon"
"Montpellier"
"Marseilles"		 This query searches for the records whose field is exactly equal to Avignon or exactly equal to Montpellier or exactly equal to Marseilles.

For example, in the field "Place" of the Currency Exchange (Spufford) data set:
  • Avignon, Montpellier, and Marseilles will be matched,
  • but not Avignon-Florence, Barcelona-Avignon, Montpellier-Provins, and Marseilles-Messina.
Avignon
Montpellier
Marseilles		 This query searches for the records whose field contains the characters Avignon or the characters Montpellier or the characters Marseilles, among other characters.

For example, in the field "Place" of the Currency Exchange (Spufford) data set:
  • Avignon, Montpellier, and Marseilles, will be matched,
  • as well as Avignon-Florence, Barcelona-Avignon, Montpellier-Provins, and Marseilles-Messina.



Lower Case vs. Upper Case

Searches are case insensitive ("avignon" is the same as "AVIGNON" and is the same as "Avignon").



Diacritics

While you may not directly type in diacritics (i.e., accented characters) in the search fields, you may freely select words with diacritics from the list. Once inserted in a search field, words with diacritics can be edited at will.

  • For example, if you want to search for France, écu (old) of   in Currency Exchange (Spufford), select it from the list of currencies.

  • If you want to search for all the occurrences of écu, select for instance France, écu (old) of   from the list, and once it is inserted in the search field, edit it to remove everything but écu.