You can create a structured search, which searches for data in specific properties of
chart items. You can find entities or discover relationships.
About this task
To describe the items that you are looking for, you create a search structure. The
structure can consist of one entity type, or two entity types and a link type between them. For each
part of the structure, you can specify that a chart item must be of a particular item type or
semantic type to satisfy the query. Then, you can then use search conditions to add item
characteristics to the query.The characteristics of an entity can be described by
its own properties and the properties of its linked items. For example, to find a Tom Smith who
lives at 12 Main Street, you can use a linked entities structure. You can specify that one entity of
a linked pair of chart items must have a semantic type of Person and a label that contains "Tom
Smith". Then, you can specify that the other entity must have an entity type of House and have '12
Main Street' for its 'Address 1' attribute value.
You can use a structured search to find
relationships. For example, to identify the accounts that are involved in high value transactions,
you can search for links that represent transactions of value greater than $75000.
Tip: To search for items that are indirectly linked through intermediate items, use
Find Linked Items or Find Path.
Procedure
To create a structured search:
-
Click the Analyze tab, and then in the
Find group, click the Visual
Search icon.
- Select the type of search:
| Option | Description |
|---|
| Single Entity |
Searches for data in entities only. |
| Linked Entities |
Searches for data in entities and links. |
-
To select the item types or semantic types to search for, click each part of the search
structure then select an entry from the Type list.
You can choose from the following options:
- To search for chart items that have any item type, select (any).
- To search for items that have an item type from a specific palette, select (is member
of) and then select a palette from the Palette list.
- To search for items that have a specific semantic type, select (semantic
types), select a type of match from the list, then click Browse
to select a semantic type. The Semantic Types list contains semantic types
that are used on the chart.
- To search for items that have a specific item type, select the item type from the
Type list. The list contains item types that are used on the chart.
- Optional:
For each part of the structure, you can specify a search condition in each of the
Identity/Label, Date & Time, and
Attribute Class areas. To satisfy the query, an item must satisfy all the
conditions.
-
To specify a link direction in a search for linked entities, click the link in the structure,
then select a direction from the Direction list.
-
Specify the items to search in the Search Items
drop-down. The option defaults to All unless some items
are selected on the charting surface. Then the option to restrict the search
scope to Selected or Unselected
items becomes available. Selected only searches the
currently selected chart items, and Unselected searches
the items not currently selected. When searching for linked entities, the search
returns the relevant link and both ends.
-
When you search for Single Entities or Linked
Entities, you can choose what Analyst's Notebook does with the
items that form the search results. Select an option from the Matched
Items list. If items are selected on the charting surface, click
Add to Selection to add the search results to
the current selection, or Remove from Selection to
remove the search results from the current selection. In any
scenario, you can replace the selection with the search results.
Note: When you search for Linked Entities,
Matched Items gains an Apply
to option. Turn on one or more of the Entity A,
Link and Entity B checkboxes to specify which item type
the Matched Items setting should apply to. You must
select at least one. When both ends of a link match the conditions specified
for Entity A and Entity B, both are selected even if you
specified "only A" or "only B" because both entities match the required
conditions. You can then decide whether your selected Matched
Items action applies to all search results, or only the
items that match specific parts of the structure. For example, if you are
searching for people who own vehicles, your results include a person, a
vehicle, and the link between them. You can choose to further refine the
results and select only the people in this relationship by selecting
the relevant Apply To checkbox, Entity
A for example. You should be aware that the Apply
To option is not directly related to the Search
Items option in Step 6, although can be used to further
refine the selections resulting from such searches.
-
To include hidden chart items in the search and reveal them as part of
the operation, select Reveal Hidden.
-
Click OK.
Analyst's Notebook runs the search.
