Additional Query Features

There are several features which you can utilize with both simple and advanced queries.

Special Symbols * ! ~

Precedence of Operators

Using Parentheses in Queries

Sorting Results

Special Symbols * ! ~

There are a number of special symbols which change the meaning of the words entered in a query. They are:

* or !

The * or ! symbols are wildcards and can be used to search for any number of significant characters. Only one wildcard can be used per word.

The * wildcard can be used at the beginning of a word. Note that the amount of time to complete the query will increase as the position of the * moves toward the beginning of the word.

The * wildcard can also be used on its own to select all documents in the database. Only the first word of each document will be highlighted.

~

The ~ symbol activates word tense conflation. Type the ~ immediately following the word, do not include a space.

By default, conflation is set to "off". Using this symbol in a query will turn it on for this word. You can also use the conflation operator at the beginning of a word, or at both ends of word.

Precedence of operators

ISYS:web will assume a precedence, that is, an order for handling multiple operators in a complex query. The default precedence is:

1. Phrases
2. //
3. AND, OR, NOT

Where a search expression, or portion of an expression, contains several operators of the same precedence, ISYS:web will process from left to right.

For example:

bonus AND manager OR supervisor

will be interpreted as find all documents that contain both bonus and manager OR those which contain supervisor.

To find documents that contain bonus and manager, OR supervisor, the query could be entered as:

manager OR supervisor AND bonus

Using Parentheses in Queries

When you enter a command-based search, you can control the order of precedence by using parentheses "( )". Just as we can use intonation in speech to clearly express a sentence that could be misinterpreted, we use parentheses to clearly express a query, overriding the ISYS:web defaults where necessary.

For example, the query:

car allowance // manager OR salesman

is interpreted using the default precedence as follows:

((car allowance) // manager) OR salesman

since the phrase car allowance has highest precedence, and the // or Near By operator has higher precedence than the OR operator.

To locate those documents containing the phrase car allowance in the same paragraph as either manager or salesman, use:

car allowance // (manager OR salesman)

Parentheses may be used anywhere sensible within a query. Examples include:

(manager OR supervisor) // bonus
the (quick OR slow) brown (fox OR kangaroo)
(manage* // (bonus OR reward) // paid) AND excess*