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Keyword Quick
Reference
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The following is a Quick Reference for the
most commonly used wildcards and operators you can include in
your keyword search to refine your search.
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| Keyword |
Resulting Hits |
| Word1
Word2 |
finds
all references where Word1 and Word2 are
in description |
| Word1
AND Word2 |
finds
all references with both Word1 and Word2 in
description |
| Word1 & Word2 |
similar to Word1 AND Word2 |
| Word1 + Word2 |
similar
to Word1 AND Word2 |
| Word1
OR Word2 |
finds
all references with either Word1 or Word2
or both in description |
| Word1 | Word2 |
similar to Word1 OR Word2 |
| Word1
NOT Word2 |
finds
all references that contains Word1, but not Word2 |
| Word1 - Word2 |
similar to Word1 NOT Word2 |
| "Word1 Word2" |
finds references matching exact phrase ("Word1
Word2") in the same order. |
| Word~ |
fuzzy search, use it when you are not sure of correct spelling |
| Word* |
example:
bal*, finds ball, balance, ballast, balderdash, etc. |
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Word? |
example:
bal?, finds
ball, bale, and bald,
but not balance |
| Word$ |
similar to Word? OR Word. For example, car$, finds car, card, cart, etc. |
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Keyword
Detailed Reference
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Keyword
Searching
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Keyword searching is performed from any of the
keyword search boxes (the Basic and Advanced boxes).
Neither keywords nor operators are case-sensitive.
When you enter a phrase into a keyword search box, the results
you receive depend on how that phrase is interpreted, as
described here.
To begin, an operator is a reserved word with a special
meaning, such as AND, OR, NOT. The results of the search will
change depending upon when and where you use an operator.
If you enter a word or more in the keyword search box, and
none of those words are operators, then your search results
will include descriptions where the words are available.
If you enter a word or more in the keyword
search box, and you include an operator,
then the search will perform just the
specified operation:
- Example 1: if you enter Word1 AND Word2, then your search
results will include descriptions where the word "Word1" and
the word "Word2" both appear. In this example, the words
"Word1" and "Word2" do not need to be next to each other and
they do not need to be in the order specified (Word1 before
Word2).
- Example 2: If you enter "Word1 Word2" AND Word3, then
your search results will include descriptions where the words
"Word1 Word2" (together and in that order) and the word
"Word3" both appear.
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Exact
Phrase Searching
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If you enter more than one word in the keyword
search box, and you surround the words with double quotes, then
your search results are based on an exact phrase match. For
example, when you enter "Word1 Word2" in the keyword search
box, your results will only include descriptions where the
words "Word1" and "Word2" appear together, in that exact
order.
If you enter an operator inside of the double quotes, then the
operator is treated like a regular word, and the search is
based on an exact phrase match. For example, if you enter the
exact phrase "Word1 and Word2", your search results will
include descriptions where the three words "Word1 and Word2"
appear (all together and in that order).
Important Points
- All punctuation marks are ignored both inside and outside
of the double quotes, with the exception of the dollar sign
($), star (*), question mark (?), and hyphen (~).
- When you enter a dollar sign, star, or question
mark inside double quotes, it is treated as entered outside of
the double quotes, these punctuation
marks have reserved functions (see below
for more details).
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Operators
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AND
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Use the AND operator to search for descriptions
that contain at least one occurrence of each of the query
terms. In other words, ALL of the keywords must be present in
the searchable description in order to result in a hit.
For example, to access descriptions that contain the words
"red", "blue", and "black", use
red AND blue AND black
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OR
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Use the OR operator to search for descriptions that contain at least one occurrence of ANY of the query terms.
In other words, only ONE of the keywords must be present in the
searchable description in order to result in a hit.
For example, to access descriptions that contain the words
"cats" or "dogs" or both, use
cats OR dogs
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NOT
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Use the NOT operator to search for descriptions that
do not contain a keyword or more.
For example, to access descriptions that contain the word
"animals" but not "dogs", use
animals NOT dogs
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*, ? and $ (wildcards)
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Wildcard characters can be
used in query expressions to expand word
searches into pattern searches.
The star (*) wildcard specifies that any characters can
appear in multiple positions represented by the wildcard. The
question mark (?) wildcard specifies a single position in which
any character can occur. The dollar sign ($)
wildcard specifies a single position where
zero or one character can occur.
These wildcards can be applied to the beginning, the middle, or
the end of keywords.
For example, to access descriptions that contain the words
"ball", "balance", and "ballast", use
bal*.
To access descriptions that contain the words "ball", "bale",
and "bald", use
bal?.
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