Search Quick Reference

Any of the words
All of the words

Finds a list of words or phrases.

Use quotation marks around phrases: banana pear "apple pie"
Add + directly in front of any word or phrase to require it: banana pear +"apple pie"
Add - directly in front of any word or phrase or to exclude it: "apple pie" -salad

Exact phrase

Finds a single phrase (quotation marks are optional).

Boolean

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

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 pie 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 parentheses 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)

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.

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 synonym 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

= matches any single digit

p12== matches p1234

Variable term weights

A number after a word assigns a specific positive or negative variable term weight when ranking retrieved documents: apple:5 salad:-2

Field searching

dtSearch automatically detects fields in supported file types:
(author contains John Smith) and (subject contains turbine generators)

A query can combine a full-text search with a fielded data search:
(author contains John Smith) and (turbine w/3 generators)

Field searching in XML

dtSearch field searching supports the hierarchical nature of XML data.
Examples:

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)