Axibase Time Series Database

Synonym Search

Overview

Synonym search allows finding series with metadata fields containing values with a similar meaning in the original or other languages.

For example, a user searching for series with currency keyword might be interested in locating series with keywords money, cash as well as geld (German) and dinero (Spanish).

The synonyms can be created for all metadata fields.

Configuration

The list of synonyms can be specified in the conf/synonym.conf file accessible on the Settings > Configuration Files page.

Syntax

The synonyms for a keyword are defined with the assign => operator. Searching by keyword or by one of its synonyms produces the same results.

keyword => synonym[, synonym]

Multiple synonyms can be specified on one line, separated by a comma.

Synonyms are disabled when the keyword is specified as field name. The following searches yield different results:

keyword:value
synonym:value

Examples

  • The word money has one synonym.
money => currency
location => place, site

Searching for money keyword matches series containing either the keyword itself or its alias (money or currency). The same results are displayed if the currency keyword is searched as well.

  • The word location has four synonyms.
location => place, site, Ort, место

Searching for location matches the below series since it has an entity tag location. Likewise, searching for ort matches the same series since ort is a synonym of location, which is one of the entity tags.

student_count         -- metric
nyu.edu               -- entity
location = NYC        -- entity tag
school = CAS          -- series tag

However, location:NYC and place:NYC searches produce different results because synonyms are not supported in field names and therefore place as a field name is not enabled as a synonym for the location field name. As a result, place:NYC does not match the above series.

Implementation

After the conf/synonym.conf file is updated, the search index must be refreshed by an administrator on the Settings > Diagnostics > Search Index page.