Proposed change to Truncation attribute 104

The ZIG has added a type 104 truncation attribute that reflects the
semantics from the Z39.50 CCL query.  We have used that syntax internally at
OCLC for many years now and have a problem with the syntax for the '?'
character.

As defined in the standard, the syntax for '?' is:
The character '?' (question mark) is used to mask a variable number of
characters. It may be followed by a positive integer, i.e. one or more
consecutive decimal digits (where the first is positive) in which the
positive integer represented by the string of digits (beginning with the
digit immediately following the '?', up to and not including the first
non-digit character), indicates a range of characters to mask, from zero up
to and including the specified integer. 

The problem arises when a '?' is embedded inside a numeric term.  There is
no way to tell what digits relate to the '?' and what digits are part of the
term.  I would like to propose that the syntax be changed to support only a
single digit following the '?'.  In those infrequent cases where more than
nine positions of masking are needed, multiple '?' characters can be
provided. (e.g. ?10 can be represented as ?9?1.)  This greatly reduces the
potential for error in this otherwise abmiguous situation.

Thanks!

Ralph

Received on Thursday, 28 March 2002 09:48:35 UTC