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