[ Word searching | Phrase searching | Truncation |
"Fuzzy" searching | Boolean Operators ]
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).
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.
Phrase searching
Type key words together to ensure that the search results contain only perfect matches (the same words in the same
order).
Sample search: meal rates will give results containing the phrase meal rates.
Put quotation marks around keywords if your query contains one of the Boolean operators and you want Index Server to
take them literally.
Sample search: Privatization and quality services will give results containing the phrase
Privatization and quality services
Truncation
Replace the ending of a key word with an asterisk (*) as a wild card character to retrieve documents containing
variant root word endings.
Example: financ* will retrieve documents containing the variations finance, finances,
financial, finance's, etc.
"Fuzzy" searching
Add two asterisks (**) as wild card characters to the end of a key word to search for all forms of that word.
Example: sink** will retrieve documents containing sink, sinking, sank, and sunk.
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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