Boolean Search Example
The boolean search lets you place your own operators
in the search to enhance your results. A simple boolean
search may be structured like this:
-
(Junior AND Nationals) OR Nationals
The search will return all documents with the word "junior"
AND "nationals" or just the word "nationals" in them.
Other Tips:
- Look for words with the same prefix. For
example, in your query form type key* to
find key, keying, keyhole,
keyboard, and so on.
- Search for all forms of a word. For
example, in the form type sink** to find
sink, sinking, sank, and
sunk.
- Search with the keyword NEAR,
rather than AND, for words
close to each other. For example, both of these queries,
system and manager and system near
manager, look for the words system and
manager on the same page. But with NEAR,
the returned pages are ranked in order of proximity: The closer
together the words are, the higher the rank of that page.
- Refine your queries with the AND NOT keywords
to exclude certain text from your search. For example, if
you want to find all instances of surfing but not
the Net, write the following query:
surfing AND NOT the Net
- Add the OR keyword to find all instances of
either one word or another, for example:
Abbott OR Costello
This query finds all pages that mention Abbott or Costello or both.
- Put quotation marks around keywords if you want the search
to take them literally. For instance, if you type the
following query:
"system near manager"
The search will literally look for the complete phrase
system near manager. But if you type the same query
without the quotation marks:
system near manager
The search looks in all documents for the words
system and manager.