| Operator | Description and Examples |
|---|---|
| ( ) [parentheses] | Determines the order in which sections of your query are processed. A part of the query enclosed in parentheses will be processed before parts outside the parentheses. Example (FIELD Projectname CONTAINS top secret OR FIELD Title CONTAINS tuna) AND (Field body CONTAINS cat OR Field revdate > 01/01/2004)Return documents whose Projectname field contains the words ‘top secret’ or whose title field contains the word ‘tuna’; and either the body field contains the word cat or the revdate field contains a date greater than 01/01/2004. |
| AND | Finds documents containing all the conditions or words linked by AND. Example cat AND dog AND fishFinds documents containing all three of these words. |
| OR | Finds documents containing either of the conditions or words and returns them ranked by number of appearances in the document. Example cat OR dog OR fishFinds documents containing at least one of these words. Note: ACCRUE works slightly better than OR when sorting results by relevance. |
| NOT | Excludes documents containing the term that appears after the operator. Examples You can put NOT between words: cat AND NOT dog finds documents containing the word cat, but not if they also contain the word dog.(cat OR dog) AND NOT (fish OR frogs finds documents containing the word cat or dog, but not if they also contain the word fish or frog.(cat AND dog) AND NOT fish finds documents containing the words cat and dog, but not if they also contain the word fish.You can put NOT before any field name: NOT [Projectname] CONTAINS top secret finds documents whose Projectname field does not contain the words ‘top secret.’You cannot put NOT after the math symbols =, <, >, <=, or >=; and before a date or number: [date1] = NOT 12/25/2002 is not an appropriate query. |
| “” | Requires that only documents containing the exact phrase are returned. Placing double quotes around operators (like AND, OR, CONTAINS etc.) allows them to be read as normal words. Example Finds documents containing the phrase rock and roll. |
| PARAGRAPH | Finds documents in which the words surrounding PARAGRAPH are in the same paragraph, and ranks them by how close they are. Example car PARAGRAPH wheelsFinds documents in which ‘car’ and ‘wheels’ appear in the same paragraph and ranks them by how close the words are within the paragraph. |
| SENTENCE | Finds documents in which the words surrounding SENTENCE are in the same sentence, and ranks them by how close they are. Example car SENTENCE wheelsFinds documents in which ‘car’ and ‘wheels’ appear in the same sentence and ranks them by how close the words are within the sentence. |
| ? | A wildcard that can represent any single letter. It does not work with dates or numbers. Examples ?oneFinds documents containing bone, cone, done, gone (and any other four-letter words that end with ‘one’) ???ckFinds documents containing stack, clock, stick, truck; rack, rick, rock |
| * | A wildcard that can represent any extension of letters. It does not work with dates or numbers. Examples *oneFinds documents containing bone, cone, clone, crone, done, drone, gone, telephone (and any other words of any length that end with ‘one’). Also, *one*Finds documents containing bone, cone, clone, lonely, phoned, stoned, pardoned. |
| EXACTCASE | Search for the exact case of the word sepcified after the operator. Example exactcase AppleFinds documents containing Apple, but not APPLEor apple. |
| – (hyphen) | Finds documents with the hyphenated word pair. Example full-textFinds documents containing full-text.“ |
