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The search engine understands an advanced syntax which can be used to further restrict or enhance the search results.
| operator | function | explanation | example |
|---|---|---|---|
| "" | phrases | allows searching for words in the exact order given | "birthday party" will only find documents which contain "birthday" immediately followed by "party" |
| * | wildcards | takes the place of 0 or more characters | part* will find part as well as parts, party, particular etc. Note: you cannot start a search term with a wilcard. |
| + | "must" | means a term has to occur in the results | searching for +birthday +party will find documents which contain both birthday and party, but not necessarily in that order (note that searching for birthday party will find documents with either one or both) |
| - | "not" | means a term cannot occur in the results | birthday -party will find all documents containing birthday, but not party |
| ? | mask | takes the place of 1 other character | p?rt will find port and part |
The following operators can be used by expert users to construct advanced queries: |
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| [] | range | finds all words in a certain range | [1930 1935] will find 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934 and 1935. Alternatively, you can enter [1930 TO 1935]. |
| ~ | fuzzy | allows for words with small differences in spelling to be found | exmaple~ will find example |
| ^N | boost | marks a words as more important, resulting in higher score when ‘relevance’ is selected (note that you can also boost a phrase) | example^3 something will score documents which contain only "example" higher than those which only contain "something" |
| ""~N | proximity | a combination of fuzzy and phrase operator will result in a proximity search where documents only match when they are a maximum of N words apart | "two words"~10 will find two and words when they are within 10 words of each other. |