Following is a list of the PLWeb search operators and brief descriptions of
how they will help you build a search. For a more in-depth discussion of
effective methods of searching with PLWeb, see the
online help.
AND
Boolean AND logic operator. Searches for records containing both of
the words it separates.
OR
Boolean OR logic operator. Searches for records containing either of
the words it separates.
NOT
Boolean NOT logic operator. Searches for records containing the query
word preceding it without containing the word following it.
NEAR
NEAR operator. Functions as bi-directional proximity operator if word
range (e.g. deficit near/3 spending) is specified. If no word
range is specified, functions as bi-directional adjacency operator.
ADJ
Adjacency operator. Searches for records in which the query word that
follows it appears immediately after the word preceding it.
W/n
Proximity operator. Searches for word pairs in which the pair's second
term
occurs within a specified number of words after the first. Example:
amphibian W/5 DNA finds records in which DNA occurs withinfive words after amphibian.
?
Wildcard operator for a single character; matches any one character.
*
Wildcard operator for strings; matches any string.
Examples: micro* matches microscope, microcomputer; *late
matches relate, translate.
+
Stemming operator; forces a word stem (if search stemming is off).
Example: run+ finds run, runs, and running.
#
Exact match operator; forces an exact word match (if search stemming is
on).
Example: run# finds run, but not runs or
running.
@
Thesaurus operator; replaces the word before the operator with its
synonyms from the thesaurus. Example: satellite@ is replaced by
synonyms listed for satellite in the thesaurus.
!
Concept operator; automatically generates a list of words related to the
word before the operator; searches for, retrieves, and ranks all records
containing those related words; hit words are highlighted.
Field restriction operator for a single word in the query; specifiesthat the word before the colon is to be searched only against field.
Example: smith:author specifies that the author field is to be
searched for the query word smith.
/F:
field1, field2...Field restriction operator for the entire query;
specifies that the entire query is to be searched against fields.
Example: kirk douglas/F:text, author, title specifies that kirk
and/or douglas need to be in either the text, author,
or the title field for the record to be retrieved.
field=num
Numeric match operator; specifies that field must exactly match num,
where num is a non-negative number. Example: year=1982 requires
the contents of the year field to contain 1982.