ZyINDEX:a powerful indexing & searching package
| Published date | 01 January 1985 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb044639 |
| Pages | 30-34 |
| Date | 01 January 1985 |
| Author | ChristineDavid B. PortogheseSchrader |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
SOFT
WARE
review
ZyINDEX:a powerful
indexing & searching
package
CHRISTINE
PORTOGHESE
DAVID B.
SCHRADER
For anyone who wants to free-text search their text files, whether created by
a
word-processor or downloaded from other sources, ZyINDEX is the answer.
It accomplishes this complex task, has many powerful features, and is easy to
learn and to use: a rare combination. The standard version is recommended
for floppy disk based computers and the professional version for computers
with a hard disk.
ZyINDEX runs on the IBM PC, XT, IBM compatibles, DEC Rainbow,
Wang Professional, NCR Decisionmate V, and other computers that use
MS-
DOS system software. It requires
a
minimum of 192K bytes of main memory
(256K
preferred), and two 5.25 inch floppy disk drives or one 5.25 inch
floppy disk drive and one hard disk drive.
The list price is $145 for the standard version and
$295
for the professional
version. There is an additional charge of
$15
for a back-up copy of the copy-
protected ZySEARCH disk. A ZyINDEX demonstration disk
is
available for
510.
The package is available from: ZyLAB Corporation, 233 East Erie
Street, Chicago, IL
60611,
USA.
T
he ZyINDEX package indexes and
searches text files, like those that can
be downloaded from online data-
bases, or produced by most word-
processors. ZyINDEX creates an
index to every word in the text files it pro-
cesses. This allows free text searching of all text
in the files, an improvement over the use of
pre-entered keywords. The 'standard' version
of ZyINDEX can create
a
single index for up to
500 files and the 'professional' version of the
package can create an index for 5000 files. A
second indexing method, 'file only', does not
allow proximity searching or highlighting of
search terms, but triples the number of files
that can be indexed.
Boolean operators, right truncation,
embedded wild cards, and proximity searching
are all supported by the ZySEARCH package.
When the index file is searched, all files
included in the index are searched simul-
taneously. Retrieval is fast and search terms in
the data files are highlighted as they are dis-
played. Portions of the text files can be marked
and saved in a new file or directed to a printer.
Handling
two
types
of files
To perform this review, the authors identified
two uses for ZyINDEX. The first
was
indexing
and searching bibliographic citations with
abstracts in a personal file of review articles
about IBM compatible computers that was
downloaded from Dialog databases. The
second use was indexing and searching meet-
ing minutes, memos and correspondence
created with the Wordstar word-processing
package. We tested and reviewed ZyINDEX
for both of these
uses,
and this review will com-
ment and evaluated ZyINDEX from each of
these perspectives.
We created two separate index files to test
ZyINDEX with data downloaded from a com-
mercial database, and also with a group of files
created with the Wordstar word-processing
package. Actually ZyINDEX would have
allowed us to set up a single index file com-
bining both of ours plus indexes of 4,988 other
files.
Indexing and
searching downloaded information
First we downloaded (under our agreement
with the database vendor) 110 patent citations
with abstracts. Using the editor (EDLIN) that
comes with the IBM/PC operating software,
we deleted the first fifty lines of the file since
these consisted only of communications and
logon exchange messages. With no further
editing, we ran the ZyINDEX indexing pro-
gram to create the index list. We found the pro-
gram instructions and menus easy to follow,
and in eight minutes our raw data files had
been turned into a free-text searchable
database.
Once the indexing step was complete, we
began searching (with the help of the
ZySEARCH program), the index list we had
just created, and the original data file. We
found the database search was fast and
attributed this to the fact that the package
starts the process by first searching the index
file.
There, it finds the search terms and their
locations in the files. The data files can then be
displayed, with the search terms highlighted
for easy spotting. Each search statement is
limited to 160 characters and each search word
is limited to sixteen characters. If an actual
word is more than sixteen characters, the first
fifteen must be entered followed by a trun-
cation symbol (*).
Impressive
search features
We found that ZyINDEX has a number of
helpful features to aid in searching. The search
terms can be combined with the standard
Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT).
Searches can be limited with proximity (W/n,
with n·l to 30,000), and can be expanded with
right truncation (*) or with embedded or
single-character wild cards (?). At least three
characters must precede the truncation or wild
cards symbols for a search request to be
accepted. However one or two characters can
be searched if not truncated (e.g. the initials
CP or the chemical symbol C).
Parentheses can be used to control the
evaluation of search arguments. Word phrases
(e.g. personal computer) are automatically
converted to adjacency searching. Case, final
's',
and punctuation
are
ignored (thus the word
Boats,
is treated as BOAT). Hyphenated
words like data-base are indexed as DATA
BASE and as DATABASE.
ZyINDEX has a list of Noise Words (more
commonly called stop words) that it will skip
30 The Electronic Library, January 1985. Vol. 3, No. 1.
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