HP Software Reference Information Storage System v1.6 User Guide (T3559-90810, November 2008)

Boolean query expressions

You can combine words, fuzzy words, and word sequences using Boolean (logical) operators AND, OR,

and NOT (these must be uppercase). The following table describes Boolean operators, where exp, exp1,

and exp2 represents a word, fuzzy word, word sequence, or other Bo olean query expression.

Table 11 Boolea

n query expressions

Syntax

Matches

NOT exp

alternative syntax: - exp

alternative syntax: ! exp

all do cuments that do not match exp

exp1 OR exp2

all documents that match either exp1 or exp2

exp1 AND exp2

alternative syntax: exp1 && exp2

alternative syntax: exp1exp2

all documents that ma tch both exp1 and exp2

NOTE:

ThesecondalternativesyntaxforANDindicatesthatANDisthedefaultconnectiveinqueryexpressions.

You do not need to supply AND explicitly. It is assumed if neither AND nor OR is used explicitly. For

example, the query peace quiet is equivalent to the query peace AND quiet.

A NOT expression must be combined, using AND or OR, with another expression other than NOT.A

query c annot consist solely of ne gative criteria.

NOT quiet

illegal

(NOT quiet) AND (NOT blue) illegal

NOTquietANDblue legal

NOT quiet OR nois*

legal

You must provide the proper number of arguments for a B oolean operator or an error m essage results:

oneargumentforNOT (- or !), two arguments for AND (&& )andOR. For example, the following

queries result in an error message.

• alpha NOT:MissingargumentforNOT

• AND alpha: Missing argument for AND

Boolean o perators must be surrounded by one or more separators, typically white space. For example,

the query peas&&carrots is not equivalent to the query peas && carrots; peas&&carrots is a

single word (& isawordcharacter).

Negation operators (- and !) are exceptions to this rule. They must be preceded by a separator, but they

need not be followed by a separator. For example, carrot-a6 is a single query word, but carrot

-a6,likecarrot (- a6), is e quivalent to the Boolean expression carrot AND (NOTa6).

Nested Boolean query expressions

You can nest Boolea n query expressions using Boolean expressions as arguments of Boolean expressions.

For example, the following quer y searches for documents containing bird,butnotgarden or stone:

bird AND NOT (garden OR stone)

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