A Guide to Boolean Searches:
+
Place a plus before words, phrases, or expressions if you would like every one of them to be included in a result.
eg:
'+apple +orange'returns all records with both 'apple' and 'orange' in them.-
Place a minus before words, phrases, or expression if you would like records containing them to be excluded from the results.
eg:
'+apple -orange'returns all records with 'apple' but not 'orange' in them.No Operator
If nothing is placed before a word, its presence in the results is optional, but records containing it will be returned before records that do not.
eg:
'apple orange'will return all records with either 'apple' or 'orange' in them, giving preference to records containing both of them.> <
Greater-than and less-than are used to change the weight of a word's contribution to the search. Place '<' before a word to make it less important, and '>' before it to make it more important.
eg:
'>apple orange'will return records containing 'apple' before records containing 'orange'.( )
Parentheses are used to evaluate sub-expressions. Whatever is inside the parentheses will be evaluated before that which is outside of them.
eg:
'+carrot +(>apple <orange)'will return records that contain both 'carrot' and 'apple', as well as records that contain both 'carrot' and 'orange', giving preference to the former records.~
A tilde acts as a negator, and the word it is placed before is given a negative value that detracts from the overall ranking of the record it is found in, though the record will not be completely excluded from the results.
eg:
'apple orange ~juice'will display results with 'apple' and 'orange' before results with 'apple juice' and 'orange juice'.*
Place an asterisk before or after a word to return records with larger words that contain that word within them.
eg:
'apple*'will return records containing 'apple', 'apples', 'applesauce', 'applegate', etc." "
Quotation marks are used to search for a specific phrase, or for any phrase containing fragments of the given phrase within it.
eg:
'"apples taste great"'returns records containing "apples taste great", as well as "apples really do taste great" and any other phrase that contains the given words in the order they were provided.
NOTE: There is a minimum word length of four characters. Any words less than that length will be excluded from the search.