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2.5 The Instruction Document

In QUEST3D the instructions are set up using the menus provided by the graphical interface.

An example (line-numbered to assist explanation) of an instruction document might be:

1. SAVE FDAT
2. SCREEN 90
3. T1 *YEAR .GT. 1988
4. T2 *BCLASS 52-57
5. T3 *AUTHOR W.H.WATSON
6. QUESTION T1 .AND. T2 .AND. T3

1.

SAVE FDAT instructs QUEST or QUEST3D to save an FDAT entry for each kept hit. FDAT is the file format suitable for input to the programs GSTAT and PLUTO.

2.

Screen 90 requires that bit screen 90 be set for a hit to be registered. All entries in the database with R-factor less than or equal to 0.050 have bit screen 90 set.

3.

This is a numeric test requiring that the year of publication be greater than 1988.

4.

This is a numeric test requiring that the basic chemical class be in the range 52-57, ie. terpenes.

5.

This is a text test requiring that W.H.Watson be an author.

6.

The final line, the so-called question line, defines the search question in terms of the tests. In this case all three tests T1, T2 and T3 must be satisfied for a hit to be registered.

The above simple example illustrates that a search question can involve the following:

• control instructions (1)
• screen instructions (2)
• search tests (3-5)
• question line in which tests are combined by logical operators (6).

Instructions can be in any order with the proviso that the question line must be the last line of the instruction document.

Tests are characterised by keywords eg. *AUTHOR and it is sufficient to specify only the first four characters.

Thus, instead of *AUTHOR, we could have *AUTH

The same principle applies to other instructions. Thus SCREEN can be replaced by SCRE and QUESTION by QUES

Normally no distinction is made between upper- and lower-case.

Thus line 5 could be:

t3 *AuTh w.H.watson

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Volume 1 Chapter 2 Search Fields and Associated Keywords.