Operators and Modifiers

  This page presents details on the search operator and modifier types.

  Evidence operators can be used to specify either a basic word search or an intelligent word search. A basic word search finds documents that contain only the word or words specified in the query. An intelligent word search expands the query terms to create an expanded word list so that the search returns documents that contain variations of the query terms.

 Documents retrieved using evidence operators are not ranked by relevance unless you use the MANY modifier.

 STEM
 Expands the search to include the word you enter and its variations. The STEM operator is automatically implied in any SIMPLE query. For example,  the EXPLICIT query expression
                                 <STEM>believe
yields matches such as, "believe,"  "believing,"  "believer".'

 WILDCARD
 Matches wildcard characters included in search strings.  Certain characters automatically indicate a wildcard specification, such as * and?. For example, the query expression spam* yields matches such as, "spam," "spammer," "spamming."

 WORD
 Performs a basic word search, selecting documents that include one or more instances of the specific word you enter. The WORD operator is automatically implied in any SIMPLE query.

Proximity operators specify the relative location of specific words in the document. Specified words must be in the same phrase, paragraph, or sentence for a document to be retrieved. In the case of NEAR and NEAR/N operators, retrieved documents are ranked by relevance based on the proximity of the specified words. Proximity operators can be nested; phrases or words can appear within SENTENCE or PARAGRAPH operators, and SENTENCE operators can appear within PARAGRAPH operators.

 The following table describes each operator.

NEAR
   Selects documents containing specified search terms.  The closer the search terms are to one another within a document, the higher the document's score. The document with the smallest possible region containing all search terms always receives the highest score.  Documents whose search terms are not within 1000 words of each other are not selected.

 NEAR/N
   Selects documents containing two or more search terms within N number of words of each other, where N is an integer between 1 and 1024 where NEAR/1 searches for two words that are next to each other.  The closer the search terms are within a document, the higher the document's score.  You can specify multiple search terms using multiple instances of NEAR/N as long as the value of N is the same:
                                   commute <NEAR/10> bicycle <NEAR/10>
                                   train <NEAR/10>

 PARAGRAPH
   Selects documents that include all of the words you specify within the same paragraph. To search for three or more words or phrases, you must use the PARAGRAPH operator between each word or phrase.

 PHRASE
   Selects documents that include a phrase you specify.  A phrase is a grouping of two or more words that occur in a specific order. Examples of phrases:
                                   mission oak
                                   "mission oak"
                                   mission <PHRASE> oak
                                   <PARAGRAPH> (mission, oak)

 SENTENCE
   Selects documents that include all of the words you specify within the same sentence.
Examples:
                                   jazz <SENTENCE> musician
                                   <SENTENCE> (jazz, musician)
 

  Relational operators search document fields that have been defined in the collection. Documents containing specified field values are returned. Documents retrieved using relational operators are not ranked by relevance, and you cannot use the MANY modifier with relational operators.

  The following operators are used for numeric and date comparisons.

                         =        Equals
                         >        Greater than
                         >=      Greater than or equal to
                         <        Less than
                         <=      Less than or equal to

  Text comparison operators match words and parts of words. The following operators are used for text comparisons.

CONTAINS
  Selects documents by matching the word or phrase you specify with the values stored in a specific document field. Documents are selected only if the search elements specified appear in the same sequential and contiguous order in the field value. For example, specifying "god" will match "God in heaven," "a god among men," or "good god" but not "godliness," or "gods."

 MATCHES
  Selects documents by matching the query string with values stored in a specific document field. Documents are selected only if the search elements specified match the field value exactly. If a partial match is found, a document is not selected. For example, specifying "god" will match a document field containing only "god" and will not match "gods," "godliness," or "a god among men."

 STARTS
  Selects documents by matching the character string you specify with the starting characters of the values stored in a specific document field.

 ENDS
  Selects documents by matching the character string you specify with the ending characters of the values stored in a specific document field.

SUBSTRING
              Selects documents by matching the query string you specify with any portion of the strings in a specific document field. For example, specifying "god" will match "godliness," "a god among men," "godforsaken," etc.

This page is  Search Engine Glossary  - updated:  29 July 2000

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