• To look for words with the same prefix use * : e.g. index* to find index, indexing, indexed, and so on.
  
  
• To search for all forms of a word use ** : e.g. drink** to find drink, drinking, drank and drunk.
  
  
• Search with the word NEAR, rather than AND, for words close to each other : e.g. both internet AND protocol and internet NEAR protocol look for the words internet and protocol 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 queries using the keywords AND, OR, and NOT : e.g. business AND NOT development will find all instances of business but not development,
  
  
• Business OR Development will all instances of business or development or both.
  
  
• To search for a phrase put quotes around the phrase : e.g. "business development" will return all instances with the phrase business development.
  
  
• Use Free Text Queries if you want to enter queries using natural language. You can enter any text you want, from a proper question, to a string of words and phrases : e.g. "How do I use the Free Text Query?" will result in an automatic creation of a query and the search will begin. Note that when using Free Text queries, the regular query language features are disabled and keywords such as AND,OR, and NEAR are interpreted as normal words

Back to Query Form

Last Updated: 10/06/2002

© Copyright CDSC(NI) 2002