Nested Boolean query expressions
You can nest Boolean query expressions using Boolean expressions as arguments of Boolean expressions. For example, the following query searches for documents containing bird, but not garden or stone:
bird AND NOT (garden OR stone)
Query expression examples
The following are examples of query expressions.
Table 11 Query expression examples
Query expression | Finds documents with ... |
|
|
peace OR quiet | Either peace or quiet, or both, in either order. |
peace quiet | Both peace and quiet, in either order. |
peace AND quiet |
|
peace && quiet |
|
peace&&quiet | The single word peace&&quiet. |
peace or quiet | The three words peace, or, and quiet, in any order. or is a word. The |
| OR operator must be uppercase. |
not quiet | The words not and quiet. The NOT operator must be uppercase. |
NOT quiet | Illegal. A query cannot be purely negative and must have some positive |
| expression. |
peace & quiet | The three words peace, &, and quiet, in any order. & is a word |
| character. The AND operator is implied. |
peace quiet | Both peace and quiet. is a separator. The AND operator is implied. |
peace AND NOT quiet | The word peace but not quiet. |
peace && |
|
| |
peace AND quiet OR | Avoid using. Parentheses are needed: peace AND (quiet OR |
silence | silence). |
quiet OR silence AND | Avoid using. Parentheses are needed: quiet OR (silence AND |
peace | peace). |
pea* | Any word starting with pea such as: pea, peas, peace, or peach. |
pea*c* | Words such as: peace, peach, or peaches. |
"peace quiet" | Both peace and quiet, in that order, with no intervening words. |
| Examples: peace quiet or peace $^%+{} quiet. |
"peace quiet"~1 | Both peace and quiet, in that order, separated by at most one word. |
| Examples: peace and quiet; peace, now;%^$ quiet; peace quiet; or |
| peace george quiet. |
|
|
peace~ | Words similar to peace such as: peaches, piece, place, or plate. |
(peace quiet) | Both peace and quiet, but not peace followed immediately by quiet. |
AND | Examples: quiet peace; quiet blue peace; or peace, water, land, quiet. |
NOT "peace quiet" |
|
38 Query expression syntax and matching