hide

You are viewing a Web site, archived on 19:43:05 Nov 24, 2008. It is now a Federal record managed by the National Archives and Records Administration.
External links, forms, and search boxes may not function within this collection. Note that this document was downloaded, and not saved because it was a duplicate of a previously captured version (23:00:24 Oct 13, 2008). HTTP headers presented here are from the original capture.

What is a Query Operator?

A query operator consists of one or more characters that act not as a query word, but as an instruction on how a query is to be processed. An operator can work at word level, where it applies to a single query term, or at query level, where its presence affects the processing of the entire query.

Note: When you apply a query operator to a stopword (e.g., the!), the operator is ignored.

Functional Overview

default operator - Used in absence of explicit operator.

concept operator - Searches for idea a word represents.

OR operator - Imposes Boolean OR logic.

AND operator - Imposes Boolean AND logic.

NOT operator - Imposes Boolean NOT logic.

single character wildcard operator - Matches single variable character.

optional character wildcard operator - Matches single variable character or no character.

string wildcard operator - Matches variable character string.

proximity operator - Searches for unidirectional proximity of two words.

adjacency operator - Searches for unidirectional adjacency of two words.

near operator - Searches for bidirectional proximity of two words.

exact match operator - Searches for exact word match.

exact phrase operator - Searches for exact phrase match.

fuzzy search operator - Searches for similar spelling.

word-level field restriction operator - Restricts word search to field(s).

query-level field restriction operator - Restricts full query search to field(s).

equivalence operator - Searches field for specified value.

range operator - Searches field for specified value range.

scope of operation delimiters - Imposes algebraic grouping logic.

[Previous Topic] [Contents] [Next Topic]