Reserved Words
The query syntax uses certain English words that can also occur in the document text. When you
want to search for these words you can only do so by putting them in double quotes ("").
| Reserved Word | Used for |
| AND | Used in Boolean queries to combine two search terms, use "and" for literal text. Example: TI:("device and method of use"). |
| OR | Used in Boolean queries for either of two search terms, use "or" for literal text. Example: TI:("repressing or removing"). |
| NOT | Used in Boolean queries to exclude a search terms use, "not" for literal text. Example: TI:("is qualified or not"). |
| TRUECASE | Used in queries where the capitalization of the words is important, use "truecase" for literal text. Example: TAC:("truecase"). |
| NEAR | Used in proximity queries to find two terms near each other, use "near" for literal text. Example: TI:("far and near light integrated module"). |
| PRE | Used in search term order queries where one term precedes another. As pre only occurs in English as a preposition (like prefabricated) it seems an unlikely problem. However a large number of documents do contain different spelling of these words. Prefabricated, for example, occurs in titles as pre-fabricated and pre -fabricated as well. Stemming will solve most of these issues, when stemming is turned off use literal quotes. Example: TI:("pre fabricated building block"). |
| ALERT | Used in Alert queries, use "alert" instead, Example: TI:("alert signal"). |
| FOLDER | Used in Folder queries: FOLDER("folder_name") , use "folder" instead, Example: TI:("folder management"). |
Reserved Characters/Special Characters
Certain characters have a specific and exclusive function in the query syntax. They are reserved for those particular functions, and cannot be used in queries for any other purpose. Do not use in your search query the following characters reserved by TotalPatent One® : : + - ( ) { } [ ] / \ = & | > < ! ^ " ~ * ? %
See a few examples below for the use of reserved characters:
- The minus sign (-) is interpreted as a NOT command.
- The column (:) is reserved to mark the end of a field name (like TI: or AB: ).
- The following characters are interpreted as wildcards which you can use to substitute a character or a range of characters in your query: ~ * ? %
If your search with a query that contains such characters, the reserved function of the given characters will be executed, or alternatively, you will receive an error message.
Terms and names, such as International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) chemical names, mathematical formulas, hyphenated words, and others may contain special characters (e.g. hyphens, brackets, commas etc.) separately or in combination. In TotalPatent One®, you can search for these by using proximity operators and wildcards.
| Chemical Name | Example Query | User Action |
| indole-3-acetonitrile-2-S-β-Dglucopyranoside | (indole pre1 acetonitrile pre4 glucopyranoside) |
Use the proximity operator 'PRE'. To calculate the distance between search terms, count them and exclude special characters. |
| indole-3-acetonitrile-4-methoxy-2-S-β-D-glucopyranoside N-methoxy-indole-3-acetonitrile-2-S-β-D-glucopyranoside |
(( Indole pre1 acetonitrile) near1 methoxy) pre4 glucopyranoside |
Use both proximity operators 'NEAR' and 'PRE' together to find synonyms of a chemical name or similar chemical names |
| N-[2-fluoro-6-(5-methyl-2-pyrimidin-2-yl-7,8-dihydro-5H-pyrido[4,3-d]pyrimidin-6-yl)-4-pyridyl]methanesulfonamide | (Methyl NEAR17 methane*) ("fluoro-6-(5-methyl" pre17 methane*) |
Use both proximity operators and wildcards. Note: when searching for chemical names with parentheses or square brackets, you should use proximity operators or put the chemical name in double quotes. |
| Terms with Special Characters | Example Query | User Action |
| • anti-cancer • anti - cancer • anti- cancer • anti -cancer • anti cancer |
(anti PRE1 cancer) | Use proximity operators to find all variations of your compound search expression. |
| Gretsch-Unitas | PA:(Gretsch PRE0 Unitas) PA:(Gretsch NEAR0 Unitas) |
Use proximity operators to find all variations of your compound search names. |
Punctuation
Even though punctuation, characters such as . , ' ; , are not reserved, do not use them in your query. The system may retrieve unwanted results by interpreting punctuation as the start of a new search term. A comma is only allowed in text fields, NOT in number fields.
Escape a Reserved Character
You can use the backslash (\) an an escape character to escape a reserved character in your query. For example, in the query TI:(apple | pear brandy) the pipe (|) character is reserved, so this query will be invalid, but TI:(apple\|pear brandy) will give you results, as the backslash (\) indicates to the system that the following character - in this case, the pipe (|) - must be interpreted as text and not as a reserved character. You can also remove the reserved character from your query to get results. You cannot use the escape character in "exact phrase" queries (see Phrase Matching).