Tips for Searching

At its simplest, a query can be just a word or a phrase. But with the tips on this page, you can expand the focus of your query to give you more complete results. These tips will get you started with basic query language and acquaint you with the full power of this search engine.

To Search For Example Results
Both terms in the same page andrology and images
—Or—
andrology & images 		Pages with both the words “andrology” and “images”
Either term in a page andrology or images
—Or—
andrology | images 		Pages with the words “andrology” or “images”
The first term without the second term andrology and not images
—Or—
andrology & ! images		 Pages with the word “andrology” but not “images”
Both terms in the same page, close together andrology near images
—Or—
andrology ~ images		 Pages with the word “andrology” near the word “images”

Wildcard operators help you find pages containing words similar to a given word.

To Search For Example Results
Words with the same prefix comput* Pages with words that have the prefix “comput,” such as “computer,” “computing,” and so on
Words based on the same stem word fly** Pages with words based on the same stem as “fly,” such as “flying,” “flown,” “flew,” and so on

Other query examples:

Syntax Example Results
@size > n @size > 1000000 Pages larger than one million bytes
@write > yy/mm/dd @write > 95/12/23 Pages modified after the date
#filename template #filename *.doc Doc files (the # prefix is used because the query contains a regular expression)
  Apple tree Pages with the phrase “apple tree”
  "apple tree" Same as above
  @contents apple tree Same as above
  Microsoft and @size > 1000000 Pages with the word “Microsoft” that are larger than one million bytes
  "microsoft and @size > 1000000" Pages with the phrase specified (not the same as above)

More explanations:

  • Look for words with the same prefix. For example, in your query form type key* to find key, keying, keyhole, keyboard, and so on.

  • Search for all forms of a word. For example, in the form type sink** to find sink, sinking, sank, and sunk.

  • Search with the keyword NEAR, rather than AND, for words close to each other. For example, both of these queries, andrology and images and andrology near images, look for the words andrology and images on the same page. But with NEAR, the returned pages are ranked in order of proximity: The closer together the words are, the higher the rank of that page.

  • Refine your queries with the AND NOT keywords to exclude certain text from your search. For example, if you want to find all instances of andrology but not images, write the following query:

    andrology AND NOT images

  • Add the OR keyword to find all instances of either one word or another, for example:

    andrology OR images

    This query finds all pages that mention andrology or images or both.

  • Put quotation marks around keywords if you want the search engine to take them literally. For instance, if you type the following query:

    "andrology near images"

    The search engine will literally look for the complete phrase andrology near images. But if you type the same query without the quotation marks:

    andrology near images

    The engine searches all documents for the words andrology and images.

These hints will get you started, but for more complex queries and more examples, see the Query Language page.

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