Technical information about word search

The searches implemented in the MCSQ interface communicate directly with the Entity-Relationship (ER) MCSQ database,
thus encapsulating SQL searches so the users do not have to worry about writing SQL statements.

The compare versions functionality

The compare versions functionality DOES NOT use alignment information.
The compare versions functionality was developed to compare questions in multiple languages (up to 8), at item level, not to compare aligments
If you want to compare alignments, you have to use the word search in alignment table functionality.

Interpreting the survey_itemid

The survey_itemid is the unique identifier for each text segment in the corpus.
It contains relevant information on it, namely the language and country of the questionnaire, the study and the year.
Consider the following examples to help you interpret the IDs:
The survey_itemid ESS_R02_2004_FRE_FR_6 means that the text segment belongs to the questionnaire ESS round 2 released in 2004,
written in French from France.
The survey_itemid EVS_R04_2008_POR_LU_26 means that the text segment belongs to the questionnaire EVS round 4 released in 2008,
written in Portuguese from Luxembourg.
The survey_itemid SHA_COVID_2020_ENG_SOURCE_7 means that the text segment belongs to the questionnaire SHARE COVID study released in 2020,
and it is the source questionnaire, written in English

Technical information about the Regular expression (regex) search

Regular expressions (regex) are patterns used to specify a search expression.
The regex search option gives users more flexibility for creating search queries in the Request, Response, Introduction, Instruction,
and Alignment tables of the MCSQ. A regular expression is a powerful and flexible text search approach, however in order to make use of it,
some knowledge about regex operators is required. Below you will find some of the most important operators and short examples to understand them:

• | denotes a logical OR, or alternation (either of two alternatives). For instance, when searching for the expression card|carte,
  the MCSQ will retrieve for you sentences that comprise words that contain either card or carte in them (e.g., card, carte, cardíaco, E-Card)
• * denotes repetition of the previous item zero or more times. For instance, when searching for the expression batt*, the
  MCSQ will retrieve for you sentences that comprise words that contain either bat or batt (or batt, or battt, and so on) in them (e.g., debate, rabatt, debatt).
• Similar to the * operator, + denotes repetition of the previous item one or more times,
  and ? denotes repetition of the previous item zero or one time
• . denotes a wild card, that is, a symbol that replaces any character, including the empty character.
  So when searching for the expression be.n, sentences containing "be" next to any character next to "n" will be retrieved, for instance, being, been, well-being, etc.
• ^ anchors to start of string, i.e., the start of a given sentence in the context of the MCSQ.
  Therefore, when searching for the expression ^agree, you will see only sentences that start with agree (e.g., Agree, Agree strongly, agree with statement A).
• $ anchors to end of string, i.e. the end of a given sentence in the context of the MCSQ.
  So when searching for the expression disagree$, you will see only sentences that end with disagree (e.g. disagree, strongly disagree, neither agree nor disagree).
• () can be used to group items into a single logical item. For instance, when searching for the expression run(s|ning),
  sentences containing either runs or running will appear.
• It is also possible to create ranges of values with brackets []. When searching for the expression carte [0-9], you will find
  sentences that contain the word carte followed by a number (e.g. MONTRER CARTE 72, CARTE 16, Veuillez examiner la carte 58.)

All of the above-mentioned operators can be used in combination, which further expands the search possibilities.
That is why learning how to build your regular expressions will allow you to create complex searches in the MCSQ.

Word search independent of item_type

You can search for words concerning specific item types in the Word search in MCSQ Tables menu
by accessing the Request Table, Response Table, Introduction Table and Instruction Table options.
In order to search for words independently of item type, i.e. words in text segments of all item types, access the Survey Item Table option.

Seaching for words with apostrophe

In SQL searches, you have to escape (escaping is a combination of characters that has a meaning other than the literal characters contained therein,
also called meta-characters) the apostrophe (') character. For instance, if you want to search for d'accord, then search for d''accord instead.

The multiword search

In order to search correctly for multiple words, please check the Multiple word search? option and separate the words by semicolon (;).
For instance, if you want to seach for very happy, write it as very;happy in your word search.

[MCSQ]: The Multilingual Corpus of Survey Questionnaires