Examples of Using Truncation and Completion
[Note: This table may be extended to address all searches defined in this profile.]
The following table illustrates the expected retrieval behavior for various combinations of attributes. The behavior with regard to combinations of the truncation and completeness attributes has been especially troublesome in terms of predictable interoperability. The following table illustrates the expected behavior.
term = "dog"
| USE | TRUNCATION | COMPLETENESS | FINDS |
| title | none | complete field | titles containing only the single word "dog". Would find "Dog"; would not find "Dogma" or "A dog and bone story". |
| title | none | incomplete field | titles containing the word "dog", but not titles containing words starting "dog...". Would find the previous and "A dog and bone story"; would not find "Dogma". |
| title | right | complete field | titles containing a single word beginning "dog...". Would find "Dog" and "Dogma"; would not find "A dog and bone story". |
| title | right | incomplete subfield | titles containing words starting "dog...". Would find the previous and "Dogma and the Christian church". |
Additionally, the position attribute determines where in the matching database term the search term is required to be:
| USE | POSITION | TRUNCATION | COMPLETENESS | FINDS |
| title | <irrelevant> | none | complete field | titles containing only the single word "dog". Would find "Dog"; would not find "Dogma"; would not find "Dog and cat". |
| title | first in field | none | incomplete subfield | titles beginning with the word "dog", but not titles beginning with words starting with "dog...". The title may contain additional words. Would find the previous and also "Dog and cat"; would not find "Dogma". |
| title | any position in field | none | incomplete subfield | titles containing the word "dog", but not titles containing words starting "dog...". The title may contain additional words. Would find the previous and also "Me and a cat named Dog", would not find "The truth about Katz and dogs". |
| title | <irrelevant> | right | complete field | titles containing only a single word beginning "dog...". Would find "Dog" and "Dogma"; would not find "Dogma and the Christian church". |
| title | first in field | right | incomplete subfield | titles beginning with a word starting "dog...". The title may contain additional words. Would find the previous and also "Dogma and the Christian church". |
| title | any position in field | right | incomplete subfield | titles containing words starting "dog..." anywhere in the field. Would find all of the previous and also "The truth about Katz and dogs". |
The behavior with regard to other values of truncation can be easily extrapolated. Few servers support "left truncation" or "left and right truncation."
Note that bib-1 does not address behavior with respect to initial articles or stopwords. Whether or not the term "dog" with (truncation=do no truncate) completeness=complete field) finds "The dog" or "A dog" in addition to just "Dog" is a local implementation issue.
Retrieval behavior with regard to (position=first in subfield) and (completeness=complete subfield) is undefined.
 |
 |
 |