LGC Promochem: Search Help

Search Help

Boolean operators
Wild cards
Field searching
Strain designations
More help

Boolean Operators

You may search a single collection or search more than one by choosing the All Collections option. Choosing a single collection will reduce the number of hits and allow you to narrow your search more easily.

If you enter more than one word in the query window, only those records that contain both words will be retrieved. Use Boolean operators and (&), or ( | ), and not (^), and exact phrase (" ") to modify search criteria. Wildcards can take the place of one (?) or more (*) characters if you are unsure of the spelling of a word or a strain designation. The following table summarizes functions of Boolean operators. Note that you must use the Boolean symbol, not the word.

Operator>	Symbol>	Example	Result
And	&	one two one & two	Finds records with both 'one' and 'two'.
Or	\|	me \| you	Finds records with either 'me' or 'you'.
And not	^	her ^him	Finds records that contain 'her' but do not contain 'him'. A search term and the not term must be used together.
Phrase	" "	"to be or not"	Finds records with the exact phrase 'to be or not'.
Single character wildcard	?	wr?te th??	Finds records with 'write', 'wrote', etc., or 'this', 'that', 'them', etc.
Multiple character wildcard	*	an work	Finds records with 'an', 'addition', 'assign', etc., or 'work', 'works', 'working', etc.

Wild cards

The question mark (?) will represent any single character. The asterisk (*) will represent one or more characters, or the lack of a character at that location in the string. The * wildcard is especially helpful when you cannot find a strain or a descriptive term that you are confident is in the database. Using the wildcard before and after the word ensures that punctuation marks are not hindering your results.

Field searching

Use the drop-down fields to narrow your search. When you enter a query into a field, only the text in that field will be searched, and other fields that may cause inaccurate results will be ignored. For example, when searching for cell lines, entering horse in the Organism field will retrieve horse cell lines, whereas horse in the full-text search will retrieve cell lines with "horse" occurring anywhere in the description, such as those requiring horse serum. If you use more than one field, only records that contain all of the queries will be found.

Strain Designations

Names and strain designations are sometimes difficult to search. They are often a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols, and ATCC tries to maintain the strain designations exactly as the depositors assigned. Some tips:

Use the wildcard (*) symbol if you are having trouble finding a strain, especially if you are confident that ATCC has the culture in question. For example, there are several cell lines that contain 3T3 in the designation. Searching on *3T3 or *3T3* will find the original cell line and all derived lines, allowing you to then review complete records to find the one you need.
Use the field searching instead of word searching. By scrolling down below the word search window, you can enter terms in the appropriate field. This will help narrow your search and reduce unintended hits.

Frustrated?

Contact a technical service representative if you are having trouble with your search.