Tips for searching
At its simplest, a query can be just a word or a phrase. But with the
tips on this page, you can change the focus of your query to give you
more precise results. These tips will get you started with basic query
language and acquaint you with the power of the search engine.
Word searching
Type one or more key words separated by the operator AND (see
below
for more information on the use of Boolean operators).
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Sample search: computer AND printer will give a list of
documents containing both computer and printer. The documents containing
the most instances of the key words will appear at the top of the search
results list.
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Boolean operators
Are used to combine key words into one search.
- & (and) : used to include two or more concepts in a
search. (i.e. & narrows a search.)
Example: risk & audit will retrieve documents
containing both concepts.
- |(or) : used to search for synonyms, related words or different
forms of a word. (i.e. | expands a search.)
Example: personnel | human resources will retrieve
documents containing either or both of the concepts.
- &! (and not): used to exclude documents containing
certain key words. (i.e. &! narrows a search.)
Example: apple &! computer will retrieve only documents about the
fruit.
- ~ (near): used rather than & to search for words
close to each other (proximity searching).
Example: both of these queries, system & manager
and system ~ manager, look for the words system and
manager on the same page.
But with ~, the returned pages are ranked in order of proximity. The
closer together the words are in the document, the higher the document
will be ranked and the closer the document will be to the top of the
search results list .
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