Query-by-Example (QBE)
You may sometimes just want to look for other documents that are like an interesting document you have already found. To perform a Query-By-Example (QBE) search, you highlight information in a document you've found, copy and paste it into the entry field in your Web form, and click the Search button.
The search engine will process a QBE search when a block of text is entered in a search form and interpreted by the QBE parser. You enter standard text in the query field, rather than keywords and Boolean operators. In fact, you cannot use Verity Query Language, with its operators and modifiers, in a query-by-example search. For example, a QBE query is shown below:
- The objective of the personnel department was to hire interns from local schools whenever possible, and to match them with experienced mentors within each department.
When you find a document you like, consider what it is about that document that makes it relevant to your needs. What words or phrases comprise a document you find interesting? If you are not sure, think bigger. Are there particular sentences or paragraphs in the document that make it interesting to you?
The QBE search works best when interesting words relevant to the documents you want to find are present in the sentences or paragraphs you enter.
By default, common words (such as "the," "has," and "for") are stripped away, and the query is built based on the more significant words (such as "personnel," "interns," "schools," and "mentors"). Therefore, the results of a query-by-example search are likely to be less precise than a full-text search.
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