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/.

• examples:
  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 ( ) 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)

Search Features

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.  With a fuzziness of 3, the same search would find both alphaqet and alpkaqet

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 thesaurus 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

xfirstword matches the first word of a document

apple pie w/10 xfirstword

xlastword matches the last word of a document

apple pie w/10 xlastword

variable term weights

A number after a word assigns a specific positive or negative weight when ranking retrieved documents. Example:

apple:5 salad:-2

Fields in XML and Other Documents

• dtSearch automatically detects fields in supported file types:
  (author contains John Smith) and (subject contains turbine generators)
• A query can combine a full-text component with a fielded data components:
  (author contains John Smith) and turbine generators
• dtSearch field searching fully supports the hierarchical nature of XML data
• dtSearch supports searches limited to precise combinations of fields and subfields
• 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)