Before searching with a limiter, call the /edsapi/rest/info endpoint to determine the limiters available when searching the defined set of databases. Limiter types and values are passed as parameters to the /edsapi/rest/search endpoint.

Limiter Definition in the /edsapi/rest/info Response

The /edsapi/rest/info endpoint returns limiter definitions. A limiter is defined by the following properties:

Element	Description
ID	A unique identifier for a limiter.
Label	A descriptive string used to identify the limiter to an end user.
Type	Determines the type of data that’s required of the end user and the format of the data to return as a limiter’s value in a search specification.
Values	Some limiter types provide a list of values for the user to select from.

Limiter Search Specification

When searching with a limiter, you must specify to the /edsapi/rest/search endpoint both the limiter ID and value. The format of the value is determined by the limiter’s type.

Limiter Types

The type of limiter determines the format of the value that should be returned. The type also determines if the limiter definition will contain a ValueList. The limiter definition is returned from the /edsapi/rest/info endpoint.

Type	Format of Value	Eds Api Name
Select	Y \| y	select
Text	Any sequence of characters	text
Numeric	Any sequence of digits (0-9)	numeric
NumericRange	Numeric-Numeric	numericrange
RelationalNumeric	=Numeric \| >Numeric \| <Numeric	relationalnumeric
YMRange	YYYY-MM/YYYY-MM (see below for more info)	ymrange
YRange	YYYY/YYYY (see below for more info)	yrange
HistoricalYRange	±YYYY/±YYYY (CE dates: +YYYY, BCE dates: -YYYY) (see below for more info)	historicyrange
SingleSelectValue	Value selected from a limiter’s ValueList (see below for more info)	singleselectvalue
MultiSelectValue	Multiple values selected from the limiter’s ValueList. Values are separated by a tilde (‘~’). Example: Limiter’s ValueList = [red, green, orange, blue], Selected Values = red~orange (see below for more info)	multiselectvalue

Date Types

Date specification follows the ISO-8601 standard for specifying year and year+month. Use a forward slash, '/' to specify a range. Separate the lower and upper dates with the forward slash. When either the lower or upper dates are missing, we assume the missing date implies all dates either >= or <= the specified date. In both cases, the '/' character is required to locate which is missing.

YMRange

Format	Description
YYYY-MM/YYYY-MM	Between the 2 specified dates. Includes the endpoints.
YYYY-MM/	> = YYYY-MM
/YYYY-MM	<= YYYY-MM

YRange

Format	Description
YYYY/YYYY	YYYY/YYYY
YYYY/	> = YYYY
/YYYY	<= YYYY

HistoricalYRange

Historical Range date specification allows for both BCE and CE dates. BCE dates require a – sign. CE dates require a + sign. The year 0000 = 1 BC. So, BC is represented as +0000. This means that all BC dates must be different by 1 when converted; for example, 5 BC becomes -0004.

Format	Description
±YYYY-MM/±YYYY-MM	Between the 2 specified dates. Includes the endpoints.
±YYYY-MM/	> = ±YYYY-MM
/±YYYY-MM	<= ±YYYY-MM

SingleSelectValue and MultiSelectValue

This type of limiter provides a list of values from which a user picks. If multiple values are selected, the values are concatenated together with a tilde ('~') between them.

For the example below, to specify Red and Green, the value is Red~Green.

Red
Green
Blue
Yellow
Orange

A list of values may also have child values. An example list with child values is below.

MA Cities and Towns
- Boston
- Springfield
- Westbrook
NY Cities and Towns
- New York
- Albany
- Westbrook

To select "Westbrook" under "NY Cities and Towns", the child value is concatenated to the parent value with a hyphen: NY Cities and Towns-Westbrook.

To select "Westbrook" in both states, the values would be separated by a tilde: NY Cities and Towns-Westbrook~MA Cities and Towns-Westbrook.