# Partially-Qualified (PQ) Space Names

A partially-qualified name is a slash-delimited pathname that starts at a space in the tree that you specify and indicates a unique space in a tree. Partially-qualified names require this separate starting space name to resolve any space name ambiguities. In VisionPro, the selected space name of an image is often used as the starting space. For example, a space name of "." is typically interpreted to mean the selected space name of the current image.

Partially-qualified names must begin with either “.”, an alias for the current user-supplied space, or “..”, an alias for its parent space. You can concatenate additional names using the “\” character as a separator. The additional names can be NQ names, “.”, “..”, or a combination of all three.

Partially-qualified names have the same advantages as FQ names: they are unambiguous and efficient to look up. They also permit shorter name strings and isolate you from all spaces in the tree which are not children of the starting space.