Boolean Operators are words and symbols that allow you to broaden or narrow your search when using the search bar in a database or search engine. Below are the most commonly used, however, some databases will have additional operators unique to them.
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- AND or &: used to retrieve results containing all of the words that it separates.
- For example, the search statement search AND seizure will retrieve only results that contain both the words search and seizure
- OR: used to broaden a search and to retrieve records containing any of the words it separates
- For example, the search statement search OR seizure will retrieve results that contain the word search or the word seizure, but not necessarily in the same document
- NOT, BUT NOT, or %: used to narrow a search and to retrieve results that do not contain the term following it
- For example, the search statement search NOT seizure will retrieve results that contain the word search, but not the word seizure
- “ “: used by placing the exact phrase you are looking for within quotation marks to retrieve results containing that exact phrase
- For example, the search statement “fourth amendment” will retrieve results that contain the exact phrase “fourth amendment” without retrieving results that use both words in different orders
- ( ): used to create priority within the search statement. The terms or connectors within the parentheses are addressed first, similar to. algebra
- !: used to find all variations on a root word
- For example, searching object! will retrieve object, objects, objected, objection, objecting
- /p: used to indicate that the words in a search statement must be found within the same paragraph
- For example, the search statement search /p seizure will retrieve results where the word search appears within the same paragraph as seizure.
- /s: used to indicate that the words in a search statement must be found within the same sentence
- For example, the search statement search /s seizure will retrieve results where the word “search” appears within the same sentence as “seizure”
- /#: used to indicate that the words in a search statement must be found within a specified number of words of each other
- For example, the search statement search /3 seizure will retrieve results in which the words “search” and “seizure” appear within three words of each other. It does not matter which word appears first