Search Tips

Search Type

any of the words or all of the words

Finds a list of words or phases

use "quotation marks" around phrases
add + in front of any word or phrase to require it
add - in front of any word or phrase or to exclude it
examples:
banana pear "apple pie"
"apple pie" -salad +"ice cream"

exact phrase

Finds a single phrase

boolean

Finds a structured group of words or phrases linked by and, or not, w/.

examples:
tart apple pie – the entire phrase must be present;
apple pie and pear tart – both phrases must be present
apple pie or pear tart – either phrase must be present
apple pie and not pear tart - only apple must be present
apple w/5 pear – apple must occur within 5 words of pear
apple not w/27 pear - apple must not occur within 27 words of pear
subject contains apple pie – finds apple pie in a subject field
use ( ) when a search includes two or more connectors:
apple and pear or orange juice could mean (apple and pear) or orange, or it could mean apple and (pear or orange)

Search Features

stemming

Finds grammatical variations on endings, like applies, applied, applying in a search for apply

fuzzy searching

Finds words even if they are misspelled. A search for alphabet with a fuzziness of 1 would also find alphaqet. With a fuzziness of 3, the same search would find both alphaqet and alpkaqet

phonic searching

Finds words that sound alike, like Smythe in a search for Smith

synonym expansion

Finds word synonyms using a comprehensive English language thesaurus (dtSearch Web can also support custom thesaurus terms)

Special Characters

? matches any single character

appl? matches apply or apple

* matches any number of characters

appl*ion matches application

~~ indicates numeric range

14~~18 looks for 14, 15, 16, 17 or 18

xfirstword matches the first word of a document

apple pie w/10 xfirstword

xlastword matches the last word of a document

apple pie w/10 xlastword

variable term weights

A number after a word assigns a specific positive or negative weight when ranking retrieved documents. Example:

apple:5 salad:-2

Fields in XML and Other Documents

dtSearch automatically detects fields in supported file types:
(author contains John Smith) and (subject contains turbine generators)
A query can combine a full-text component with a fielded data components:
(author contains John Smith) and turbine generators
dtSearch field searching fully supports the hierarchical nature of XML data
dtSearch supports searches limited to precise combinations of fields and subfields
Examples from this demo’s Shakespeare XML database:
persona contains Henry - finds Henry in a persona field
scene/stagedir contains exeunt citizens - finds a stagedir field containing exeunt citizens, directly nested in a field called scene)
scene/speech/line contains publius - finds a scene/speech/line field sequence that contained publius)
/play/title contains Henry the Fifth - finds a play field at the top of the hierarchy, with a title field just beneath it containing Henry the Fifth)
scene//line contains publius - finds a line field containing publius from anwhere beneath the scene field)
Henry the Fifth and (scene//line contains publius) - same as above, with a full-text search for Henry the Fifth)

xxxx

There are two ways to search for information:

Use this search page to search all catalogs on this site.
Use this search page to search individual catalogs.

To use this search page, you can look for a single word. Or, use the tips below to refine your search to find more specific results.

Look for a phrase.
Example - type sports events to find the exact phrase sports events. Since the search is not case-sensitive, this is equivalent to Sports Events.
Look for two or more words at once by using the AND operator.
Example - type sports AND events to find documents that have both the word sports and the word events anywhere.
Look for words that are close to each other by using the NEAR operator instead of the AND operator. When you use NEAR, the closer together the words are, the higher the rank of the page, so the higher it appears in the list of search results.
Example - type sports NEAR events to match documents where the word sports is within 50 words of the word events.
Look for synonyms or similar words by using the OR operator. Note that if you don't use the OR operator and search using multiple words, the words are treated as a phrase.
Example - type dogs OR puppies to find the word dogs or the word puppies, but not necessarily both.
Limit your search by using the AND NOT operator to exclude words.
Example - type surfing AND NOT the Internet to find all instances of surfing, as long as surfing is not followed by the phrase the Internet.
Use double quotes if you want to use AND, OR, NOT, or NEAR literally.
Example - type "houses near parks" to find documents with the phrase houses near parks. Without the double quotes, this query would use the NEAR operator instead of the phrase.
Use a single asterisk (*) to look for words that begin with the same letters.
Example - type key* to find key, keying, keyhole, keyboard, and so on.
Use a double asterisk (**) to look for all forms of a word.
Example - type fly** to match fly, flew, flown, and flying.