Glossary of terms relating to thesauri and other forms of structured vocabulary for information retrieval

Parametric searching

searching for concepts with specific values of characteristics of division

e.g. searching for wines for which the colour is red and the alcohol content is from 5% to 10%.

This type of search is for concepts that occur within one or more arrays of a single facet, e.g. narrower terms of wine in a "materials" facet grouped under the node labels (wine by colour) and (wine by alcohol content). In some systems it is possible to search for a range of values rather than just for specific values.

It is to be distinguished from searches for compound concepts which may be made up of concepts from different facets, such as wine from a "materials" facet combined with red colour and alcohol content from a "properties" facet.

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