Boolean Search

 

 


 
  • + stands for AND: indicates that this word must be present,
  • - stands for NOT: indicates that this word must not be present,
  • [no operator] implies OR: the word is optional,
  • ( ) group words into subexpressions,
  • > < used to change a word's contribution to the result relevance, the > increases the contribution and the < decreases it,
  • ~ acts as a negation operator, causing the word's contribution to the result relevance to be negative, this is useful for marking noise words,
  • * serves as the truncation (or wildcard) operator.

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    The following examples demonstrate some search strings that use boolean  operators:

     

    • apple banana

      the result contains at least one of the two words.

       

    • +apple +juice

      the result contains both words.

       

    • +apple macintosh

      the result contains the word “apple”, but rank higher if it also contains “macintosh”.

       

    • +apple -macintosh

      the result contains the word “apple” but not “macintosh”.

       

    • +apple ~macintosh

      the result contains the word “apple”, but if it also contains the word “macintosh”, rate it lower than if it does not. This is “softer” than a search for +apple -macintosh, for which the presence of “macintosh” causes the result not to be returned at all.

       

    • +apple +(>turnover <strudel)

      the result contains the words “apple” and “turnover”, or “apple” and “strudel” (in any order), but rank “apple turnover” higher than “apple strudel”.

       

    • apple*

      the result contains words such as “apple”, “apples”, “applesauce”, or “applet”.

       

     

     

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