What is the comma doing and why does the sequential order matter?

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HalMurray
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2022 7:50 pm

What is the comma doing and why does the sequential order matter?

Post by HalMurray » Sun Jan 16, 2022 8:31 pm

The follow three searches are used to describe the question
  • in="shultz john w" gave 25 records
    in="shultz john w" AND ta=enzyme,protein gave 6 records.
    in="shultz john w" AND ta=protein,enzyme gave 10 records.
The only difference between the 2nd and 3rd query is the order of the terms [enzyme – protein] separated by a comma in the ta [Title, Abstract] field.
Question: What is the comma doing and why does the order of the terms give different results?
Thank you.
PS-I did not find any discussion of the comma in the pocket guide.


Patent Information Marketing
Posts: 358
Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2017 1:16 pm

Re: What is the comma doing and why does the sequential order matter?

Post by Patent Information Marketing » Tue Jan 18, 2022 3:29 pm

Thank you for this interesting question. We are well aware that some more explanations need to be communicated to the users and we are working on it.

The coma has normally no functional impact in Espacenet and will give the same effect as a space. In the queries' context provided, it will then be interpreted as the Boolean operator AND.
Also, if no field identifier is put before a word, Espacenet will interpret that you want to search the word with the field identifier nftxt by default (i.e. All text fields or names).

So, the query in="shultz john w" AND ta=enzyme,protein is interpreted as
in="shultz john w" AND ta=enzyme AND nftxt=protein.

And the query in="shultz john w" AND ta=protein,enzyme is interpreted as
in="shultz john w" AND ta=protein AND nftxt=enzyme.

This explain the difference in the number of retrieved records.

In case you would like to have both terms, protein and enzyme, to be searched with the field identifier ta (i.e. Title or abstract), then you need to query in one of the following equivalent ways in Smart search:
  • in="shultz john w" AND ta=enzyme AND ta=protein, or
  • in="shultz john w" AND ta all "enzyme protein"

Although not related to the use of comas, I wanted to mention that the query in="shultz john w" will not find publications where the inventor has been encoded as "Schultz John" or "John Schultz" in our database.

To find these alternatives, you may use in="shultz john" (but this will not find "John Schultz", if encoded in this way, because with this query, which use the operator =, the two search terms will be searched exactly in the written order) or broaden it to in all "shultz john" instead (same effect as the query in=shultz AND in=john), knowing, however, that it could also generate some noise. Another way would be: (in="shultz john" or in="john shultz").


Finally, I noticed that the use of the coma in the above mentioned context generated an unwished behaviour in Advanced search. And this needs to be fixed. In the Advanced search equivalent queries - which should always be synchronised with the Smart search queries - the addition of a coma indeed prevented the term following the coma to be included in the Advanced search query (see screenshots below). I will inform the technical team about this bug.

enzyme-protein-1.png
enzyme-protein-2.png
Kind regards,

Andrée
Patent Information Marketing


HalMurray
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2022 7:50 pm

Re: What is the comma doing and why does the sequential order matter?

Post by HalMurray » Tue Jan 18, 2022 3:36 pm

Thank you for your clear and concise explanation to my questions as well as your advice on searching for inventors.
Hal Murray


Patent Information Marketing
Posts: 358
Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2017 1:16 pm

Re: What is the comma doing and why does the sequential order matter?

Post by Patent Information Marketing » Tue Jan 18, 2022 4:00 pm

You are welcome!

Kind regards,

Andrée


Patent Information Marketing
Posts: 358
Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2017 1:16 pm

Re: What is the comma doing and why does the sequential order matter?

Post by Patent Information Marketing » Tue Jan 18, 2022 4:02 pm

Please note the correction regarding the last alternative way to search inventors.

Kind regards,

Andrée
Kind regards

Patent Information Marketing


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