Search SoCalHoops
1997-1999 Article Archives

Return To SoCalHoops

Notes & Help On "Boolean" Searching

Case sensitivity:  Only words or phrases containing an upper case character will be treated as case sensitive. A search on "usa" will match "Usa", "USA", and "usA", while the term "USA" matches only its uppercase version.

Asterisks (wildcards):  The asterisk (*) is a powerful search tool, but has some limitations. It cannot span words - that is, the query "powerfu*earch" would not match the first sentence of this paragraph - and it can represent at most four letters or numbers. To avoid overly broad searches, the asterisk can only be used in words or phrases which have at least three alpha-numeric characters. A search for "th*" would be ignored.

This search engine allows some very advanced capabilities to help you find exactly what you're looking for. These capabilities are best shown with a few examples:

Examples:

1.  "+CGI    +scripting"
Translated: require CGI, require scripting

Finds "CGI Scripting", "CGI scripting", and "scripting of type CGI".
Does not find the lowercase "cgi scripting", nor the abbreviated "CGI script".

2." -CGI +scripts"
Translated: forbid CGI, require scripts

Finds "Perl scripts", "Hollywood scripts", and lowercase "cgi scripts".
Does not find "CGI definitions" nor "CGI scripts".

3. "or CGI and scripts"
Translated: prefer CGI, require scripts

Finds "Perl scripts", "CGI scripts", and "CGI Scripts".
Documents with both terms appear higher in the list.

4. "CGI scripts"
Translated: require the phrase "CGI scripts"

Finds "CGI scripts".
Does not find "CGI Scripts" nor "scripts of type CGI".

5. "and cgi  and script*"
Translated: require cgi (case insensitive), require words starting with "script"

Finds "CGI scripts", "cgi scripting", "Cgi scripter".
The asterisk is a wildcard representing any four or fewer characters.

6. "not planet  and Venus  and  pictures   or  images"
Translated: require Venus (case sensitive), require pictures, forbid planet, prefer images

First lists "pictures and images of Venus", then "Venus pictures".
Does not list lowercase "venus picture", nor forbidden "picture of planet Venus".

7. "Where is the *frog*"
Translated: ignores common words like where, is, and the - requires words containing "frog"

Finds "frog", "frogleg", and "bullfrog".
To suppress the ignore feature, use quotes, as in "Where is the *frog*?".

The Xavatoria Search Engine is Copyright 1997 by Fluid Dynamics.
Visit the Search Page for help files and most recent version.