near

Purpose

Finds documents that contain a sequence of arguments regardless of their relative order. Gaps between the arguments are not allowed by default.

Syntax

near([distance], term1, term2…​)

Arguments

The function accepts several arguments:

  • The first optional argument distance specifies maximum distance (in tokens) between the last and the first position of the sequence;

  • The second and the next arguments define the terms to search for (the number of them is unlimited).

The function also supports optional named parameters:

  • range sets exact length of the sequence in tokens, min_range sets minimum length, max_range sets maximum length;

  • distance sets exact difference in positions between the first and the last argument of the sequence, min_distance sets minimum difference, max_distance sets maximum difference;

  • gap sets exact number of tokens between arguments of the sequence, min_gap sets minimum number, max_gap sets maximum number;

  • interval sets exact difference in positions between arguments of the sequence, min_interval sets minimum difference, max_interval sets maximum difference;

  • allow_punct:=yes/no allows or prohibits punctuation between arguments (set to "yes" by default);

  • allow_space:=yes/no allows or prohibits spaces between arguments (set to "yes" by default);

  • match:=range matches text range starting from the first found term and ending with the last found term.

  • match:=inverse matches text range starting from the first found term and ending with the last found term except for the specified arguments.

Returned Value

Documents matching the query.

Example

near(company, ship) = near(1, company, ship) matches «company’s shipping business " and «a large shipping company".

near(3, company, produce) = near(company, produce, max_range:=4) = near(company, produce, max_gap:=2) matches «the company also produces coking and thermal coal", «the deal will produce the fourth-most-valuable company in the country" and «<…​> for the purpose of producing revenue. The Company considers historical performance <…​>".

near(company, loss, profit, max_interval:=10, match:=range) matches «During the fourth quarter of 2001 the Company had a net profit of $163,000 compared to a net loss of $650,000 in 2000".