Searching for data

Please note that you are able to customize the search mechanism via the My Settings page located on the left-side menu. To begin searching for data, enter your search criteria into a text box located in the top right-hand corner of each SDW page and click on the Search button.

	Search for free text via Google.
	Search for free text or series keys via the internal search mechanism.

Submitting Series or Metadata Search

The Series Search is the default SDW search option. If you want to search among the metadata please select the ‘Metadata search’ radio button.

Enter your search criteria into the search text box and click on the Search button. A message will appear informing you that your search is being conducted.

Please keep in mind that there are datasets loaded to SDW from many different data sources. The terminology used for the series title might differ. The SDW search engine handles well the general grammatical issues, like nouns in singular/plural, verbs in different tenses, names of countries and their adjectives, but unusual abbreviations are not handled automatically: e.g. the following two search terms will search for the same series French small enterprise loans and small enterprises France loans. In addition, euro area and euro zone are considered equivalent therefore using any of the 2 terms in the search criteria the returned results should be the same. For example, euro area unemployment will return the same results as euro zone unemployment.

Note that the free text search will, by default, retrieve series whose description or short title includes your search terms.

If you want to search only series from a specific dataset, it is enough to add the dataset name to the search criteria like in the following example: BSI euro area

If you want to search only series from a specific Publication, it is enough to add the dataset name to the search criteria like in the following example: Statistics Bulletin euro area.

However, combining two or more search terms with the OR logical operator requires explicit definition - e.g. population (Germany OR France). Logical operators ( AND and  OR ) must be specified using capital letters (please see the data grid below for all the available operators).

The order of search terms is unimportant. Therefore, entering seasonally adjusted unemployment Luxembourg and Luxembourg unemployment seasonally adjusted would yield identical search results. To search for a particular phrase, simply enter the phrase in double quotation marks- e.g. "gross domestic product". In this case, the order of the search terms is important.

You can also search for time series by series key. Enter your series key search criteria into the search text box and click on the Search button. A message will appear informing you that your search is being conducted.

You may enter partial or complete series keys/aliases with the option of using wildcards for series dimension values. The following wildcards are permitted:

• ? or * for multiple characters (e.g., BOP.M.? or EXR.*.EUR.* ),
• ^ for a single character (e.g., EXR.^.USD.EUR.SP00.A )

You may also enter a list of complete series keys/aliases separated by a comma, a tabulator or a blank space. In the same way, you may search for multiple wildcarded series keys separated by a blank space, as below.

• EXR.M.BGN.EUR.SP00.A, EXR.M.CHF.EUR.SP00.A, EXR.M.CZK.EUR.SP00.A, EXR.M.DKK.EUR.SP00.A, EXR.M.EEK.EUR.SP00.A, EXR.M.GBP.EUR.SP00.A, EXR.M.HUF.EUR.SP00.A
• BKN.H.U2.*.ZZ.S.Q BKN.H.*.A020.Z.ZZZZ.ZZ.S.Q EXR.A.*

The length of time between the submission of your search criteria and the appearance of the search results will depend on the breadth (specificity) of your search criteria. Broader searches that specify very general terms (for example, GDP , HICP or M3) typically take longer to process than more restrictive searches (such as GDP euro area or HICP euro area energy ), and are likely to result in thousands of series whose titles contain these general terms. Restricting your search criteria will usually result in faster processing and more relevant search results. Please note that search performance may also be affected by network bandwidth availability .

The following text search operators are available:

Search Results

The Search Results page appears once your search is complete. After submitting the search, you end up on the Data Selection page which contains three different areas - Available Datasets, Dimension filters and List of series (not all of which will appear for every search, as this depends on the type of search conducted and the nature of the search results).

For the Series Search, the following areas are displayed:

The Search Result page contains for the Metadata Search:

Please note that the maximum of displayable series on Search Result page is 2000 per dataset (maximum 2 data cubes of up to 1000 series each). If your search criteria result in more series, only the first 2000 will be displayed and you will be asked to refine your query.

Your search criteria are displayed at the top of the page, along with information on the number of series, siblings and explanatory items retrieved as a result of your search. For quick access to these areas, click on one of the numbers displayed. Each area may be collapsed and expanded as needed using the / icons displayed in the top right-hand corner of the area.

Each series title is a hyperlink on the search result page of the Series Search. It leads to a Quick View page.

New SDW Search (Beta Version)

Searching for data

To begin searching for data, enter your search criteria into the text box located in the middle of SDW search page and click on the Search button.

The search in SDW can be performed by using free text field or ‘Series Key’:

Submitting text search

When a text search is entered, search is active on – time series and metadata. Search queries are treated as case insensitive and they are therefore interpreted in lower case letters.

Stop words such as “the”, “a”, “an”, “in” are ignored except the logic connectors such as AND, OR, NOT.

Exact Search (“”) is also possible, e.g.  "Gross domestic product at market prices".

Submitting Series Search

You may enter partial or complete series keys with the option of using wildcards for series dimension values. The following wildcards are permitted:

• * for multiple characters (e.g. EXR.*.EUR.* )
• ? for a single character (e.g. EXR.?.USD.EUR.SP00.A )

You may also enter a list of complete series keys or wildcard series keys separated by OR operator as below.

       ICP.M.AT.N.000000.4.ANR OR ICP.M.AT.N.000000.4.INXICP.M.*.N.000000.4.ANROR EXR.?.USD.EUR.SP00.A

You can also exclude series by using the NOT operator.

       ICP.M.AT.N.000000.4.* NOT ICP.M.AT.N.000000.4.CTX

Displayed results

After obtaining the search results you can see the total number of records found below the search box.

When search results are displayed you have the following information for each of the listed time series: :

• Time series’ short title
• Long description of the time series
• Series key
• Time period span for which there are observations
• The data when the series was “Last Updated”
• For some of the results you have the option to display “More countries”. Under more countries the user can find the list series for different countries for which the same economic phenomenon is available

Filtering & Selecting data

The Data Selection page is the primary "launch pad" for performing many key SDW functions. It is usually presented as a result of:

• browsing for data through the left-hand SDW navigation menu;
• making a request to browse an SDW search results selection;
• accessing a data group through My Data Groups.

Data appearing on the Data Selection page may be:

• filtered: data may be filtered on the basis of common dataset dimensions. Note: In order to see a list of "Selected Series" relating to your selection, your filtering criteria must be less than 500 series. To make a more detailed selection you can use the "Base Filters", such as "Frequency" or "Geographic Area", or you can go to the "Advanced Filters" section where you can apply filters per each dataset. You may also deselect some of the "Available Datasets" which appear at the top of each "Data Selection" page.
• viewed: selected data may be viewed and printed in tabular or chart format. Metadata associated with the selected data may also be viewed.
• exported: selected data may be exported in CSV & SDMX-ML version 2.0 Compact format.
• stored: selected data may be compiled and stored on a long-term basis as a private or public data group. This data may be accessed and managed through the My Data Groups option.

The Data Selection page contains three areas:

On a Data Selection page, the relevant button inside the "data functions toolbar" is highlighted in blue:

Click on a button from the toolbar to view Data Table, Data Chart or Metadata, to apply Advanced Filters criteria, or to Data Download or save (Add to My Data) the time series of your choice.

Available Datasets

The Available Datasets area displays a list of datasets that are associated with time series retrieved via data browsing or a data search, constrained by any filter criteria selected. Each dataset displayed is therefore associated with at least one time series in the Selected Series area, if no filters have been set. The number of time series retrieved for each dataset appears in parentheses next to the dataset name. All datasets displayed here are selected by default. To unselect a dataset (if there is more than one dataset present), uncheck the corresponding checkbox. All series associated with the dataset will be removed from the Selected Series area. To re-select the dataset, click on the corresponding checkbox.

The "Available Datasets" and "Dimension Filters" areas can be expanded/hidden as per user needs. For this purpose, use one of the icons below.

/	Collapse/Expand area - click on this to hide/show the Dimension Filters or the Available Datasets areas.

Two different MS ExcelPivot export options are available next to each dataset:

Export Data into standard MS Excel Pivot Table - click on this to export the dataset to a static Excel workbook. Data are displayed similarly to data exported using the Refreshable Pivot Table, but in this case to get the latest values available, the data need to be exported again from the SDW portal. (After MS Excel has opened the exported Excel workbook, please ‘Enable Editing’ and ‘Enable Content’ in the workbook.)

There is also a refreshable MS Excel Pivot based on the SDMX 2.1 Web Services as data source. Please download the Excel workbook, open it, and start downloading the data you earlier selected on the SDW portal. The data will be downloaded to a worksheet, and the pivot table will be created on a separate worksheet. The data worksheet can be refreshed any time, which will also trigger the automatic update of the pivot table.

Dimension Filters

The Dimension Filters offer a mechanism for filtering time series on the basis of common dataset dimensions. You can use the Dimension Filters at any time to apply further data restrictions and refine your current selection, regardless of how you arrived at the Data Selection page (i.e., through data browsing, a data search, etc.).

The Dimension Filters contains the key dataset dimensions shared by the series appearing in the Selected Series area. Here you can apply filters that are common to all selected datasets but you can also refine the results by applying filters on each dataset. The "Frequency" and "Geographic Area" filter dimensions are almost always both available, since these dimensions are common to most datasets. Note that more options are available in the Advanced Filters which allow you to filter the data by specific dimensions for each of the selected datasets. Filter dimensions that contain only a single value are "greyed out". Bear in mind that you can customize the way filters behave on the My Settings page.

Filter dimension values are often interdependent and are adjusted dynamically according to your filter criteria selections. If, for example, you modify the Frequency filter dimension from Monthly to Quarterly, the filter option values for the other common dimensions may change to reflect only the available values for quarterly data. Note that each time you select or change a value from a filter dimension, the entire Data Selection page will reload with the updated filter restrictions applied to the data, as well as a refreshed set of filter option values "tailored" to your current filter criteria. This mechanism prevents you from specifying a filter combination that does not yield any data.

To filter data, select the desired filter criteria from the dimensions available. To select multiple values for a particular dimension, click on the filter and pick codes from the list with your mouse one by one.

It is also possible to filter the long code lists. Start typing in the selected filter, and the codelist will be restricted to entries matching your search term. See the illustration below.

The code of any criteria selected within a filter always appear at the top of the list. When you move your mouse over the code, the description of the code becomes visible in the tooltip.

You can always delete an applied filter by clicking the "x" sign next to the filter code. In case you want to remove all the filters that have been applied, please click the "Reset Settings" button.

Advanced Filters

Here you will find additional options to further filter your selection.

The Advanced Filters operate exactly like the primary filter options. Beforehand you need to select the dataset for which you would like to apply more filters (click the dataset within the Advanced Filters) and then select one or more values for the targeted dimension and click out of the field. Each time you perform a selection, the page will reload with the updated filter restrictions applied to the data on the Data Selection page, as well as with a refreshed set of filter option values "tailored" to your current filter criteria. The number of values available for each dimension are written in parantheses next to the dimension name. You are able to customize the settings for filters at any time by accesing the My Settings page. Also notice that the "Reset Settings" button will clear out all the applied filters.

Common Description

The Common Description area displays all filter criteria applying to your selection. It always appears when your data selection pertains to datasets that share the same dimensional structure. It indicates the dimension names as well as the filter values applied to the dimensions. Together with a short series title, displayed in the Selected Series area, it forms a complete description of the series.

Selected Series

The Selected Series area displays a list of time series retrieved via data browsing or a data search, constrained by any filter criteria selected. If a selection made from the left-hand navigation menu or from the search contains more than 500 time series (which is often the case), you will be asked to restrict your search to reduce the number of series presented. Each series is identified with a title, series key, and begin/end dates.

Series are displayed in different shades of blue and grouped in the following order:

1. Reference Series;
2. Published Series - series that are published, e.g. in the Statistics Bulletin or ESRB Risk Dashboard;
3. Other Series - non-reference series that are not published.

The vast majority of reference series are also published. Note that not all navigation items and search results will contain reference and published series.

To select or unselect a series, check the corresponding series checkbox.

Series history

The following icons appears next to each series key:

Series Dataset Vintage – click on this to view the history of a particular time series taking into consideration the update dates at dataset level. The Dataset Vintage page displays the series history organised by the dates on which any series in the dataset has been updated (horizontal time axis), no matter if the selected series has been updated or not at that specific point in time. All series of a dataset have the same horizontal time scale of changes. Changes in observation values belonging to the same period are marked in bold. The deletion of observation values are indicated by icons. Use the Export button to download the Data Vintage page into a CSV file. Please note that for now the series vintages page is available only for the Real Time Database (RTD) data.

New SDW Search (Beta Version)

Filtering data

To filter data, select the desired filter criteria from the dropdown menus. Search results can be filtered by:

• Frequency: time interval at which observation occur over a given time period
• Country: geographic area to which the measured statistical phenomenon relates
• Tag: concept assigned to each time series.
• Dataset: logical group of data which consists of a collection of time series belonging to the same “set” and sharing both a common business meaning and dimensional structure
• Data source: source agency

You may also start typing in the selected filter, and the value will be restricted to entries matching your search term.

The number of results available for each filter value is written in parentheses next to the filter value name.

More than one value per filter category can be selected. Other filter categories are dynamically updated based on the selected filters and each time you perform a filter selection, the page will reload with the updated filter restrictions applied to the data as well as with a refreshed set of filter option values "tailored" to your current filter criteria. If, for example, you modify the Frequency filter from Monthly to Quarterly, the filter option values for the other common filters may change to reflect only the available values for quarterly data.

You can always delete an applied filter by clicking the "x" sign next to the filter value name. In case you want to remove all the filters that have been applied, please click the "Reset" button located in the bottom right corner of the grey filter box.

Selecting and Sorting data

Once the results are displayed you can select the series of interest. You can either select a single series key or all the countries available.

To select or unselect a series, check the corresponding series checkbox (on the right of the series).

Series Results are sorted by relevance by default, but they can also be sorted by latest update.

Downloading data

Selected data may be exported only in CSV format. Please note that multiple time series may be selected and downloaded together in one CSV file containing all the series key selected in the same CSV sheet.