2.4

SQL shortcuts settings

As we saw previously, DICOM Search offers a simplified way to run your search queries. Here, we explain the 2 settings that we can use to customize the simplified queries.

SQL shortcuts

To define the default prefix when your search query does not contain a SELECT list, you need to first open the Preferences window by clicking on the Application > Preferences item from the main menu. In the Preferences window, select the SQL shortcuts tab. The default prefix is the SELECT list that is added to your search query when no SELECT list is entered. For e.g. if you entered DICOM Search expands this to the following (assuming the default settings are used): SELECT ds_thumbnail, ds_filename, ds_keyID FROM tags WHERE … ds_thumbnail stores the image thumbnails, ds_filename stores the source image file name, and ds_keyID is an internal key value that is used by the internal DICOM file browser. You can add additional columns to the default prefix if you need them to be always part of your search results. For e.g. if you always want the study date (0008,0020) to be displayed, enter the following value for Default prefix: SELECT ds_thumbnail, ds_filename, ds_keyID, [00080020] FROM tags The required columns is the list of columns that DICOM Search will always add to our search query. Given these defaults: If we entered the following in our search query: DICOM Search automatically adds the ds_thumbnail, ds_filename, and ds_keyID columns to our search results. If you don’t want to display the thumbnails and filenames, you can remove the ds_thumbnail and ds_filename values from the list of required columns. If you don’t want to use the DICOM file browser, you can remove the ds_keyID value.

Difference between the Default prefix

and Required columns

The Default prefix is used when your search query does not contain a SELECT list of columns to retrieve. The Required columns list is used every time you run a search query - if your SELECT list does not include the columns in the Required columns list, it will be added automatically.

Tags aliases

The other element that helps us write simplified queries is the tags aliases. DICOM Search indexes all the DICOM tag values in your images, and it would be inconvenient to have to always type in the group and element codes for the values we want to retrieve or search. To ease this task, DICOM Search lets you create aliases for any DICOM tag. DICOM Search ships with some pre-defined aliases. To view or modify the aliases, first bring up the Tags and fields window. You can do this by selecting the Actions > View DICOM tags item from the main menu: or by pressing F2 when your cursor is in the query window area. In the Tags and Fields window, enter the alias you want to use in the Alias column. For e.g. to create an alias for 0008,0020 (Study Date), we just enter the following: Press ENTER or RETURN to save the alias. Now any time you want to use the Study Date tag, just enter studydate instead of [00080020] e.g. Aliases must meet the following conditions: • they must not start with a numeric value • they must contain only alphanumeric values • they must not contain spaces You can use non-English words as aliases. For e.g. you could define the Japanese word for name for tag element [00100010] this way: When using non-Latin character aliases, you would need to enclose the alias in square brackets e.g. Next, we’ll explore using more advanced search queries.

Section summary

• DICOM Search offers an alternative to using SQL queries to search for images. • Defining and using aliases simplify searching significantly.

Related help file topics

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Simplified search