AND, OR, NEAR, and NOT (Boolean) Operators

Click the right-arrow button to add the Boolean operators AND, OR, NEAR, and NOT to your search.

Table 1. AND, OR, NEAR, and NOT Operators
Operator	Searches For	Example	Returns
AND	Both words in the same topic, anywhere in the topic	rain AND snow	All topics containing both the word rain and the word snow anywhere in the topic
OR	Either word in a topic	cat OR feline	All topics containing the word cat or the word feline as well as topics containing both words
NEAR	Both words in the same topic, close together	hike NEAR camp	All topics containing both the word hike and the word camp but only when they appear close together in the topic
NOT	The first word without the second word	orange NOT juice	All topics containing the word orange but not the word juice

AND narrows a search by returning only topics containing all of the words you search for. The more words you join together with AND, the fewer topics the search returns.

OR expands a search by returning topics containing either word by itself or both words together. Use OR to search for words that are similar in meaning; the more words you join together with OR, the more topics the search returns.

NEAR searches for words that appear close together, in any order, in a topic. Using NEAR instead of AND can return a more relevant list of topics.

NOT limits your search by returning only topics containing the first word but not the second word, even if the first word also appears in the topic.

Nested Expressions

Use parentheses to group words together when you are using more than one Boolean operator and three or more words. Expressions that are placed between parentheses are evaluated before the rest of the search statement. This allows you to combine several search statements into one, therefore creating more complex searches. For example, water AND (polo OR aerobics) searches for topics containing information about both water polo and water aerobics.


Note		If a search contains multiple Boolean operators, but does not contain a nested expression, it is evaluated from left to right. For example, water AND polo OR aerobics (without parentheses) is the same as (water AND polo) OR aerobics, and finds topics containing information about water polo or aerobics, but not water aerobics.

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AND, OR, NEAR, and NOT (Boolean) Operators

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