# Run-time Information Strings

When you search for a pattern using PatMax, PatMax may provide diagnostic information about the pattern in the form of text strings. To check for this information call one of the following functions after the search to read any text strings the tool writes. The following table describes the messages that PatMax can produce at run time.

Information Strings Messages | Notes
--- | ---
20300: N results were discarded due to contrast threshold. The score of the best discarded result was S. | PatMax discarded one or more patterns because their contrast was below the contrast threshold you specified for the alignment. You may be able to see these results by lowering the contrast threshold. Note that the score value included in this message is approximate, since the result was excluded from processing before the final score was computed.
20301: N results were discarded due to proximity to stronger results. The score of the best discarded result was S. | PatMax discarded one or more patterns because they overlapped other better matches. You may be able to see these results by adjusting the relevant overlap threshold. Note that the score value included in this message is approximate, since the result was excluded from processing before the final score was computed.
20302: N results were discarded due to excess clutter. The score of the best discarded result was S. | PatMax discarded one or more patterns because they had too many extraneous features. You may be able to see these results by ignoring clutter when scoring. This message is only returned if you have configured PatMax to consider clutter when scoring pattern instances.
20303: Degenerate system detected for this result. | This PatMax result was one of several degenerate results. You can only obtain this message by requesting the diagnostic message for an individual result, not for an entire set of results.