Search Tips
Following is a list of the PLWeb search operators and brief descriptions of how they will help you build a search. For a more in-depth discussion of effective methods of searching with PLWeb, see the online help.
AND
Boolean AND logic operator. Searches for records containing both of the words
it separates.
OR
Boolean OR logic operator. Searches for records containing either of the
words it separates.
NOT
Boolean
NOT logic operator. Searches for records containing the query word preceding it without containing the word following it.
NEAR
NEAR operator. Functions as bi-directional proximity operator if word
range (e.g. deficit
near/3 spending) is specified. If no word range
is specified,
functions as bi-directional adjacency operator.
ADJ
Adjacency operator. Searches for records in which the query word that
follows it appears immediately after the word preceding it.
W/n
Proximity operator. Searches for word pairs in which the pair's second
term occurs within a specified number of words after the first.
Example: amphibian
W/5 DNA finds records in which DNA occurs withinfive words after
amphibian.
?
Wildcard operator for a single character; matches any one character.
*
Wildcard operator for strings; matches any string. Examples: micro* matches microscope,
microcomputer; *late matches relate, translate.
+
Stemming operator; forces a word stem (if search stemming is
off). Example: run+ finds run, runs, and running.
#
Exact match operator; forces an exact word match (if search
stemming is on). Example: run# finds run, but not runs or running.
@
Thesaurus operator; replaces the word before the operator
with its synonyms from the thesaurus. Example: satellite@
is replaced
by synonyms
listed
for satellite in the thesaurus.
!
Concept operator; automatically generates a list of words
related to the word before the operator; searches for,
retrieves, and
ranks all
records
containing
those related words; hit words are highlighted.
Field-Restricted Searches
:field
Field restriction operator for a single word in the query; specifiesthat the
word before the colon is to be searched only against field. Example: smith:author specifies that the author field is to be searched for the query word smith.
/F:
field1, field2...Field restriction operator for the entire query; specifies
that the entire query is to be searched against fields. Example: kirk
douglas/F:text, author, title specifies that kirk and/or douglas need to be in either the
text, author, or the title field for the record to be retrieved.
field=num
Numeric match operator; specifies that field must exactly match num, where
num is a non-negative number. Example: year=1982 requires the contents
of the year field to contain 1982.