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Using the Search Criteria Boolean Search (Step #2), you can build a query using the advanced Search syntax.
Boolean and Proximity Operators
Boolean and proximity operators can be used to create a more precise query.
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To search for
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Example
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Results
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both terms in the same page
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access and basic
-or-
access & basic
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pages with both the words "access" and "basic"
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either term in a page
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cgi or isapi
-or-
cgi | isapi
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pages with the words "cgi" or "isapi"
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the first term without the second term
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access and not basic
-or-
access & ! basic
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pages with the word "access" but not "basic"
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both terms in the same page, close together
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excel near project
-or-
excel ~ project
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pages with the word "excel" near the word "project"
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Tips:
- You can use parentheses to nest expressions within a query. The expressions in parentheses are evaluated before the rest of the query.
- Use double quotes (") to indicate that a boolean or near operator keyword should be ignored in your query. For example, "Abbot and Costello" will match pages with the phrase, not pages that match the boolean expression.
- The Near operator returns a match if the words are within 50 words of each other.
- The Not operator can only be used
after an And operator in content queries; it can only be
used to exclude pages that match a previous content
restriction. For property value queries, the Not operator
can be used apart from the And operator
Wildcard Operators
Wildcard operators are useful for finding pages with words similar to a given word.
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To search for
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Example
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Results
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words with the same prefix
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comput*
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pages with words that have the prefix "comput", such as "computer", and "computing"
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words based on the same stem word
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fly**
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pages with words based on the same stem as "fly", such as "flying", "flown", and "flew"
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Miscellaneous Tips on Query Syntax
- Queries are case-insensitive: you can type your query in uppercase or lowercase.
- You may search for any word except for those in the exception list (for English, this includes a, an, and, as, and other common words), which are ignored during a search. Words in the exception list are treated as placeholders in phrase and proximity queries.
- Punctuation marks such as the period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), and comma (,) are ignored during a search.
- To use specially-treated characters
( (&), (|), (^), (#), (@), ($), ((), ()) ) in a query,
enclose your query in quotes (").
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