The menu command Tools | Search Similar Samples Locally allows to search for Samples in the database that are similar to selected Samples, based on the numbers of similar and different allele types.

• Allelic Profile Distance Criteria

Defines the threshold for similar samples. By default, the cluster-alert threshold of the cgMLST task template in the project is used. Alternatively a multiple of the cluster-alert threshold can be chosen, an absolute allele distance, or a relative allele distances.

By default all samples with more than 10% missing values will be excluded from the search result

• Metadata Criteria

By default only Samples in the same project are searched.

Additionally, place and time limitations can be defined here.

• Similarity Search Comparison Table Settings

Settings for the comparison table that is shown as search result can be set here.

By default, only the first 100 Samples of a search result are shown, and the 5 nearest Samples that are not within the defined threshold are added to the table.

The default settings for a similarity search are defined on project level in the Project Editor.

The Search Similar Samples function is also available as button in the Search Samples dialog or in the context menu of a loaded Sample.

The search result can be opened in a comparison table. The query Samples are highlighted orange, the found similar Samples are highlighted yellow. The other nearest samples (by default 5) are not highlighted.