Advanced search options

Advanced search options
Use advanced search options to control the scope of your search from any of the applications in IBM Connections.
When performing an advanced search, you can search for single terms, such as test or hello, or phrases, such as "test search" or "hello world".
Important: To search for a phrase, enclose the phrase in double quotation marks (").
You can further refine the scope of your search by combining search terms with Boolean operators to create a more complex query. You can also perform wildcard searches and fuzzy searches, and group search terms using parentheses to form sub-queries. Search is not case-sensitive: uppercase and lowercase characters are equivalent.
When you perform an advanced search, your query is analyzed to return the optimum results. As part of the operation, the Search application performs a linguistic analysis to ensure that different word forms, such as plurals, verb endings, and grammatical tenses, are matched correctly in the search results. For example, when you search for the term goose, you might expect to get results that contain the term geese. Similarly, when you search for the term run, you might expect to get results that include the terms ran or running. Search engines refer to this functionality as stemming. However, IBM Connections uses a different approach, which is based on dictionaries rather than stemming.

Wildcard searches
A wildcard is a character that can be used to represent one or more other characters in a search term. Search supports single and multiple character wildcard searches within single terms, but not in phrases. You cannot use the question mark (?) or asterisk (*) wildcards as the first character of a search string.

Single character wildcard searches
To perform a single character wildcard search, use the question mark (?). The Search application looks for terms that match when the single character is replaced by another character.
For example, if you enter te?t as a search string, the results might include information containing the terms text and test.

Multiple character wildcard searches
To perform a multiple character wildcard search, use the asterisk (*). This type of search looks for zero or more characters.
For example, if you enter test* as a search string, the results might include information containing the terms test, tests, and tester.

Search operators
Use the following operators to control the scope of your search.
Table 1. Advanced search operators

Operator Description
OR Use the OR operator between two words to search for content that contains either word.
For example, if you enter car or motorcycle, Search returns information that contains either car or motorcycle.
AND Use the AND operator to search for content where both terms exist anywhere in the text of a single document. By default, a space between keywords is treated as an AND operation.
The double ampersand (&&) operator can be used as a synonym for the AND operator.
For example, to search for information containing the text car and motorcycle enter the following query:
"car" AND "motorcycle"
+ Use the plus sign (+) to combine search words. The plus sign operator is similar to the AND operator, but it applies only to the word immediately following it.
For example, to search for information that must contain car and can contain motorcycle, enter the following query:
+car motorcycle
NOT Use the NOT operator to exclude a word from your search. Results containing the word immediately following the operator are excluded by the search.
The exclamation point (!) and minus sign (-) can be used as synonyms for the NOT operator.
For example, to search for information that contains car but not motorcycle, enter one of the following queries:

car NOT motorcycle
car -motorcycle

Use the NOT operator, exclamation point (!), or minus sign (-) with a single term returns no results.

Grouping
Use parentheses to group search terms in clauses and further refine the scope of your search.
For example, if you want to search for information that contains plane and car or plane and motorcycle, enter the following query:
(car OR motorcycle) AND plane

Special characters
When your search term contains one of the nonalphanumeric characters listed below, you need to escape the character by using a backslash ( \ ) before the character or by enclosing the search term in double quotation marks ("). Use a backslash before using any of these characters:
+ - && || ! ( ) { } [ ] ^ " ~ * ? : \
If you do not perform this escape operation, Search interprets the characters as being part of the query instructions.
For example, if you want to search for information that contains the text string cat + dog and you enter cat + dog as your search term, Search looks for any data that contains both the word cat and the word dog. This result is because the plus sign (+) is a reserved operator with a predefined meaning. To search for information containing the actual text string cat + dog, use one of the following queries:

cat \+ dog
"cat + dog"

Parent topic
Performing an advanced search

Related tasks

Performing an advanced search
Related reference
Add a list of bookmarks to a web page
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Search bookmarks

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Search Tips | Advanced Search

Operator	Description
OR	Use the OR operator between two words to search for content that contains either word. For example, if you enter car or motorcycle, Search returns information that contains either car or motorcycle.
AND	Use the AND operator to search for content where both terms exist anywhere in the text of a single document. By default, a space between keywords is treated as an AND operation. The double ampersand (&&) operator can be used as a synonym for the AND operator. For example, to search for information containing the text car and motorcycle enter the following query: "car" AND "motorcycle"
+	Use the plus sign (+) to combine search words. The plus sign operator is similar to the AND operator, but it applies only to the word immediately following it. For example, to search for information that must contain car and can contain motorcycle, enter the following query: +car motorcycle
NOT	Use the NOT operator to exclude a word from your search. Results containing the word immediately following the operator are excluded by the search. The exclamation point (!) and minus sign (-) can be used as synonyms for the NOT operator. For example, to search for information that contains car but not motorcycle, enter one of the following queries: car NOT motorcycle car -motorcycle Use the NOT operator, exclamation point (!), or minus sign (-) with a single term returns no results.