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Wildcards |
Definitions |
Examples |
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Percent Sign (%) |
A wildcard character representing zero or more characters in a word. This is particularly useful for finding words with the same root or stem. |
disab% This example finds documents containing:
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Underscore (_) |
A wildcard character representing exactly zero or one character in a word. It can help you find words that you may have trouble spelling, such as proper names. You must enter one underscore for each missing character in a word. |
ev_lu__ion This example finds the word evaluation. |
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Operators |
Definitions |
Examples |
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ABOUT |
Use ABOUT to query on concepts. An ABOUT query increases the number of relevant documents returned from the same query without this operator. |
about(disabling conditions) This example yields fewer overall occurrences of disabling conditions, but each document found is relevant to the word or phrase. |
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AND (&) |
The symbol & (ampersand) and the word AND returns records that contain the first term as well as the second term to qualify. |
discipline & IEP These examples find documents containing the word discipline and the word IEP. |
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EQUIValence (=) |
Use = to specify an acceptable substitution for a word in a query. |
learning (disability = handicap) This example finds documents containing the phrase learning disability or the phrase learning handicap. |
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Fuzzy (?) |
Use fuzzy (?) to expand queries to include words that are spelled similarly to the specified term. This is helpful for finding more accurate results when there are frequent misspellings in the documents. It's also useful if you are unsure of the spelling of one or more words. |
?accomodation This example finds documents containing the word accommodation. |
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NEAR |
Use NEAR to return results based on the proximity of two or more query terms. Syntax: NEAR((word1, word2,..., wordn), max_span) Spans of more than 100 return an error. The default span size is 100. |
near((autism, residential),5) This example considers the phrase to be found in a document if the word residential occurs 5 words before or after the word autism. |
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Not (~) |
The ~ symbol and the word NOT finds records that include the first term but exclude the second term. |
impairment ~ hearing These examples find documents containing the word impairment, but not the word hearing. |
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Or (|) |
The | (pipe) symbol and the word OR returns records that contain the first term or the second term, and possibly both terms to qualify. Although some records contain both words, those records are counted only once. |
evaluation | transportation evaluation or transportation This example finds documents containing just the word evaluation, just the word transportation, or both. |
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Soundex (!) |
Use the ! symbol to expand queries to include words that have similar sounds; that is, words that sound like other words. This allows comparison of words that are spelled differently, but that sound alike. |
!smyth This example finds documents containing the words:
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Stem ($) |
An operator that finds the word form (or stem) of the term or phrase. The parts of speech — singular, plural, past tense, present tense, future tense, etc — define word forms. This operator cannot be mixed with other operators or wildcards in the same term, and must be added to the beginning of the term. |
$evaluate This example finds documents containing:
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Grouping and Escape |
Definitions |
Examples |
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( ) |
Parentheses serve to group terms and operators. |
(extracurricular or athletics) and inclusion This example finds documents containing the word extracurricular or the word athletics, and the word inclusion. |
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{ } |
Use braces to escape a string of characters or symbols. To query on words or symbols that have special meaning to query expressions such as and & or |, you must escape them. |
{gifted and talented} This example finds documents containing the words gifted and talented as a phrase. |
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\ |
Use \ to escape a single character or symbol. |
$\1200 This example finds documents containing the number $1200. |