Boolean search - how to build queries?

Modified on Wed, 8 Oct at 5:41 PM

How Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT can refine your search by combining or limiting terms.

Boolean logic is a system of showing relationships between sets by using the words "AND," "OR," and "NOT."

IntelligenceBank Boolean Search parameters:

Operator	Search Term	IntelligenceBank Notes
None	ying yang	ying yang : is the same as ying OR yang : which is any documents that contain ying or yang
Quotations	“ying yang”	“ying yang” : any documents that contain the exact phrase “ying yang”
And	ying AND yang	ying AND yang : any documents that contain both the words ying and yang
And (no space)	ying ANDyang	ying ANDyang : any documents that contain the word ying OR the word ANDyang
And (+ no space)	ying +yang	ying +yang : any documents that must contain the word yang and may also contain the word ying
And (+)	ying + yang	ying + yang : any documents that contain the word yang and may also contain the word ying
And (& no space)	ying &yang	ying &yang : any documents that contain the words ying or the word yang
And (&)	ying & yang	ying & yang : any documents that contain the words ying or the word yang
And (combination)	ying AND “yang”	ying AND “yang” : any documents that contain both the words ying and yang
And (combination)	ying+”yang”	ying+”yang” : any documents that contain the word yang and may also contain the word ying
And (combination)	“ying”+”yang”	“ying”+”yang” : any documents that contain the word yang and may also contain the word ying
And (no spaces)	yingANDyang	yingANDyang : any documents that contain the word yingANDyang
And (no spaces)	ying+yang	ying+yang : any documents that contain the word yang and may also contain the word ying
And (no spaces)	ying&yang	ying&yang : any documents that contain the word yang or the word ying
Or	ying OR yang	ying OR yang : any documents that contain the word yang or the word ying
Not	ying NOT yang	ying NOT yang : any documents that contain the word ying but not the word yang

Notes : + is not equivalent to AND
& is not equivalent to AND

+ requires the following term to exist in the document
&& is an equivalent to AND