RadNet Customized Search User Guide

RadNet BannerRadNet iconWelcome to the RadNet Customized Search User Guide. This tool allows users to report on any data element, and is primarily geared toward the experienced user. The Customized Search consists of four main steps, as well as other features. Columns with a "code" value have a corresponding description column, a Comma Separated Value (CSV) option is available, and users can specify sort order and column display order.

General Instructions

The Customized Search searches for data elements using the user's table and column selections and other search criteria. Follow these four basic steps to search data elements:

STEP 1: Subject Selection

The data in this database has classified by subject area of the information provided by the table(s) in that specific subject area. This allows you to start by determining the subject area of the data that you wish to retrieve. You may select only one subject at a time from the functional area table provided. A brief description appears in the column next to the subject name. Click the underlined subject of your choice. This selection will automatically bring you to a page that allows you to either repeat Step 1: Subject Selection or go on to Step 2: Retrieve Tables based on the chosen subjects. Once you have completed Step 1, click the Step 2: Retrieve Tables for Selected Subjects button.

STEP 2: Table Selection

You may select one or more tables available based on your subject selection. These tables, which will be used for your output, will change depending on which subjects you choose. Three buttons follow the table which enable you to: return to Step 1 to select additional functional areas (if there are additional subjects that you can choose), go on to Step 3 to retrieve columns for the tables you selected, or you may reset and make new selections for this step. If you repeated Step 1 and selected all available subjects, only the Step 3 and Reset buttons will appear on this page. Once you have made your table selection(s), click on the button to go on to Step 3: Retrieve Columns for Selected Tables.

STEP 3: Column Selection

You may select one or more columns that are listed according to your table selection. Click the underlined column name to view that column's metadata. To select the columns, which will be used for your output, click on the box next to the column name.

If you decide to select columns other than those already chosen, you may either click the box again to deselect, or click the Reset button that appears at the bottom of the page. A Step 4: Enter Search Criteria button also appears at the bottom of the page. You must select one or more columns before clicking the Enter Search Criteria button, to proceed to the fourth step. If you click on the button without making a selection, a notice will appear stating that you must return to the column list on the previous page and make at least one column selection. Once you make the column selection, click on the Step 4: Enter Search Criteria button.

STEP 4: Search Criteria and Output Data

You must enter search criteria and organize the output data for data retrieval using the Customized Search page, which appears after clicking the Enter Search Criteria button in Step 3. Select either the standard search columns or use your selected columns as search criteria.

Media Search

RadNet media are either air particulates, precipitation (rain), drinking water, surface water, or pasteurized milk. You can select only one operator (the default is "Equal To"). You can select multiple media by holding the control key and clicking on each medium you want to include in the query.

Geography Search

Geography refers to the geographic point at which a given sample was taken.

A list of the postal abbreviations and the state names is provided below:

Postal Abbreviations and State Names
AK = Alaska AL = Alabama AR = Arkansas
AS = American Samoa AZ = Arizona CA = California
CN = Canada CO = Colorado CT = Connecticut
DC = District of Columbia DE = Delaware FL = Florida
FM = Federated States of Micronesia GA = Georgia GU = Guam
HI = Hawaii IA = Iowa ID = Idaho
IL = Illinois IN = Indiana KS = Kansas
KY = Kentucky LA = Louisiana MA = Massachusetts
MD = Maryland ME = Maine MH = Marshall Island
MI = Michigan MN = Minnesota MO = Missouri
MP = Northern Mariana Islands MS = Mississippi MT = Montana
NC = North Carolina ND = North Dakota NE = Nebraska
NH = New Hampshire NJ = New Jersey NM = New Mexico
NV = Nevada NY = New York OH = Ohio
OK = Oklahoma OR = Oregon PA = Pennsylvania
PR = Puerto Rico PW = Palau, Republic of RI = Rhode Island
SC = South Carolina SD = South Dakota TN = Tennessee
TX = Texas UT = Utah VA = Virginia
VI = Virgin Islands VT = Vermont WA = Washington
WI = Wisconsin WV = West Virginia WY = Wyoming

Radionuclides/Radiation Type

The analytes are either a non-specific type of radiation (e.g., gross alpha or a specific radionuclide (e.g., uranium-238 or 238U).

Date Range Search

The RadNet sampling period (e.g., 1978 to current year). The format is mm/dd/yyyy.

Unit of Measure Search

Radiation can be expressed in several different types of units, depending on the sample, the analyte, and other factors. The units used in RadNet are picoCuries per liter (pCi/L), pCi per cubic meter (pCi/m3), grams per liter (g/L, which is used only for total potassium (K) and calcium), and disintegrations per minute per gram of carbon (DPM/gC, which is only used for 14C).

Output Options

The Customized Search allows you to organize the output data according your selections from Steps 1, 2, and 3. Arranged in a table format, six fields for output data organization appear: Column Name, Search Option, Search Value, Column Display Order, Sort Column, and Sort Order.

Column Name

Under Column Name, each column you selected from Step 3 appears in the order in which you made the selections. Click on the underlined column name to retrieve an extended description of that column.

Search Option and Search Value

The Search Option and Search Value fields allow you to enter specific search criteria to further refine the information that is being selected. If the column that you selected is already a search criteria in the standard part of the form such as radionuclide name, then these two options will not be available to you. A note will appear in these columns stating that the column is already a standard search option above.

For all other columns, the Search Option field allows you to specify the scope of the search value that you are entering under the Search Value option. It is predicated on the type of column that you selected: character, number or date. For character columns, you are allowed to search for all values containing the value, beginning with or equal to the value. Each of these search options gives you a greater specificity for the search. For number values, you have equal to, greater than/equal to, less than, and less than/equal to. For date values, you have starting from, equal to, and ending with.

You will only be allowed to enter search values that are appropriate to the type of the column. For instance, if you entered a character value in a number column, that value will be rejected by the search. If you are unsure about column type, clicking on the column name will take you to a page detailing the column.

Column Display Order

The Column Display Order field allows you to change the order of the columns for the output. If you do not insert an order, the columns will remain listed in the order that the columns were selected. To change the order, insert numeric values into the blank fields, beginning with 1 for the first column to be listed, 2 for the second column, and so on. You need enter only the numbers for those columns that you specifically care about ordering. All the remaining columns, you may leave blank and the search will reshuffle them automatically. For instance, if you wish the last column listed here to be the third column in the output, simply enter 3 in the last column and leave the others blank.

Sort Column

This option allows you to sort the entire output by a specific column (or columns) data. For instance, if you wanted to order the entire output by the amount of a specific radionuclide released into the air from the RadNet database (provided you chose the columns, name and amount from results analyte table), you would put a 1 next to the name field indicating that you first wish the output data to be sorted by the radionuclide name, followed by a 2 in the amount field indicating that once it is sorted by chemical, you wish to sort the output for each radionuclide by the amount released into the air. You may use use the sort order column to further refine the ordering of the output.

Sort Order

Once you have entered values for the sort column, you may choose to further refine the sorting of data by choosing an option for the Sort Order. You may select to arrange the data in either ascending or descending order. Ascending order will list the smaller data values first and the larger data values last; descending order will list the larger data values first and the smaller data values last. Please note that if you do not enter a value for the sort column, this entry will be ignored.

Once you have entered all of your search criteria and organized your output data, you must click the Search Database button, the Reset button, or the Output to CSV File button. Click the Search Database button to run the search. To re-enter the search criteria or to re-organize the output data, select the Reset button. You may select the Output to CSV (Comma Separated Value) File button if you wish to view the data in a spreadsheet on your PC. If you select this option, you will be given the file name and you will be asked to save the file to your hard drive.

Where Only

This option allows you to separate variables into search and retrieval categories. By clicking on a specific variable in this column, you are specifying that the variable should only be used to specify what to retrieve from the database but should not appear as part of the data retrieved and shown to you by this search. Please note that you will therefore have to specify a search value for the variable if you click on the where only column for the variable. Also neither the Column Display Order option or the Sort Column option is valid and will be ignored in the retrieval, if you mark this variable as Where Only, since those options only apply to variables that are going to be displayed.