The search query can either be one or more words (a simple search) separated by spaces,
or a boolean expression. By default, all searches are performed in a case insensitive
manner, for example, entering "HOUSE" is identical to entering
"house", "House" or even "HoUSe".
(You can request a case sensitive search by clicking on the case sensitive check box).
Simple Searches
| wood furniture |
Each article must include both "wood" and
"furniture" If not specified, the 'and' is implied. |
| wood or furniture | Each article must contain at least one of the words: "wood" or "furniture" |
| wood* | Find articles containing wood, woodworking, woodrow, woodlands, etc |
Enter a single word to find any article that contains the exact whole word
entered. For example, the search entry "world" would find records containing the
word "world", but not "worldwide". If you enter more than one word, it
will find entries containing all of the words you entered. For example, "world
economy" will find entries containing both the word "world" and the word
"economy" (but not necessarily next to each other or in that order).
To find parts of words, use an asterisk (*) to represent missing parts of the word. For
example, if you enter "world*" it will match "worldwide",
"worlds", etc. Similarly, "*world" would find "underworld",
etc.
Boolean Searches
| wood and furniture same as: wood furniture |
Each article must include both "wood" and
'furniture' If not specified, the 'and' is implied. |
| wood or furniture | Article must contain at least one of the words: 'wood' or 'furniture' |
| (yogi or bear) and earthquake | To be selected, article must contain 'earthquake' and at least one of the words 'yogi' or 'bear' |
For more control over the search query, you can use a boolean expression. If you enter the
word or between two search words (with a space between each word and the
"or") it will find any record which contains either the first word, or the
second word, or both. For example, "apple or orange" would find records
containing the word "apple" or the word "orange", or both.
If instead of the word or you entered and it would match
only records which contained both the word "apple" and the word
"orange". Note that this would be the same as a simple search for "apple
orange" because if the boolean commands are omitted, it defaults to assuming an and
between each search word.
To find records which do not contain a particular word, place the word not
before it. For example, "not blue" would find all the records which do not
contain the word "blue". You can combine the "and", "or" and
"not" commands, for example "apple and not red" would find records
containing the word apple but not the word red.
For advanced use, you can use brackets to group the expression. For example, "apple
and (red or green)" would find all records containing the word "apple" and
either "red" or "green" (or both). If the brackets are omitted, the
and command has higher precedence, so "apple and red or green" would find all
records contain "apple" and "red", and also records containing
"green".
Last updated: 02/25/98