Natural Language
A natural language search finds documents that contain the query words as well as words with related meanings.
For example, if the query word is child, the search engine may also search for descendant, offspring, progeny, baby, infant, etc. The depth of the search depends upon the Expansion Level of the selected Style.
To perform a natural language expansion while using a different search mode, place an exclamation point (!) immediately after the word you want to expand. For example, pebble! may expand to rock, boulder, fragments, etc., even if you are currently in Boolean or pattern mode.
Pattern
A pattern search finds documents that contain the query words as well as similarly spelled words. This is particularly helpful if the document was scanned, because optical character recognition (OCR) is not always accurate. Pattern style is also useful when you are not sure about the correct spelling of a word.
For example, if you type farmasutical, the search engine will be able to decipher the misspelling and find pharmaceutical. The depth of the search depends upon the #Spell Words value of the selected Style.
To perform a pattern search while using a different search style, place a tilde (~) immediately before the word. For example, type ~farmasutical if you are using natural language or Boolean style.
Boolean
A Boolean search uses traditional Boolean operators to find exact matches for all query words you enter.
For example, if you want to find information about good beaches or resorts in Hawaii, enter the query:
(beaches or resorts) and Hawaii
If you are in Boolean style, and you do not use any Boolean operators, the AND operator will be assumed between each term.
| Operator |
Syntax |
Description |
Precedence |
|---|
| ( ) |
(word1 | word2) & word3 |
Parentheses can be used to override the precedence of other operators and can be nested to any depth. |
1 |
|---|
| not, ^ |
not word1
^word1 |
Word1 must not be found in the document. |
2 |
|---|
| and, &, but |
word1 and word2
word1 & word2
word1 but not word2
word1 word2 |
Both word1 and word 2 must be found in the document. If no operator is present between two words, and is the default. |
3 |
|---|
| within |
word1 word2 within N |
Word1 must be found within N words of word2. |
4 |
|---|
| adj |
word1 word2 adj N |
Word1 must be found within N words of word2, and word1 must come before word2. |
4 |
|---|
| between |
word1 between word2 and word3 |
Word1 must be found between word2 and word3. |
4 |
|---|
| or, | |
word1 or word2
word1 | word2 |
Either word1 or word 2 must be found in the document. |
5 |
|---|
To specify an exact phrase or term in any search style, place quotation marks around the term. For example, if the query is "renaissance England", the search engine will find only those articles that contain that exact phrase.
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