Search Help

The Search Appliance has a vocabulary of over 250,000 word and phrase associations. Each entry is generally classifiable by either its meaning or part of speech. 

Synonyms may be included for individual terms within your query by preceding them with a ~ (tilde) character. 

Search uses set logic for text queries. Set logic is easier to use and provides more abilities than boolean. The examples below make reference to single keywords, but keep in mind that each keyword can represent an entire list of things or any of the special pattern matchers.

Sets (or lists) of things are specified by placing the elements within parenthesis, separated by commas. Example: (bob,joe,sam,sue) . In the examples below, you could replace any of the keywords with a list like this.

The default behavior of the search is to locate an intersection (or 'AND') of every element within a query. This means that the query: "microsoft bob interface" is the equivalent to the boolean query: "microsoft AND bob AND interface" .

- (without)

The - (minus) is the most commonly used logic symbol. It means the results must exclude references to that item.

+ (mandatory)

The + (plus) symbol in front of a search item means that the results must include that item. This is generally used in conjunction with the permutation operation.

@N (permute)

The @ followed by a number indicates how many intersections to locate of the terms in your query. This may be confusing at first, but it is very powerful.

The wild-card character * (asterisk) may be used to match just the prefix of a word or to ignore the middle of something. 

To locate a number of adjacent words in a specific order, surround them with " (double quotation) characters. Putting a - (hyphen) between words will also force order and one word proximity.

The plus(+) and minus(-) operators must be attached to the term to which they apply. There must be a space between the operator and any preceding term.  

Search Logic Examples 

The Word forms options give you control over how many variations of your query terms will be sought in your search.Exact match: Only exact matches will be allowed. (the default) Plurals & possessives: Plural and possessive forms will be found. (s, es, 's) Any word forms: As many word forms as can be derived will be located. Custom: Uses the Custom Suffix List, Custom Suffix Default Removal, and Custom Suffix Min Length settings to create your own custom behavior.

Word Form Examples

We call this morpheme processing, and it is generally smarter than a traditional "stemming" algorithm. It doesn't just rip the end off a word, it actually checks to see if it could be a valid form of the search term.

Notes: Thesaurus terms are also treated in the same manner. Words smaller than 4-5 characters will not be morpheme processed.

The Search Appliance's search can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be. Usually you will just need to enter a few words that best describe that which you are trying to locate. To perform more complicated searches you might use any combination of logic operators, special pattern matchers, concept expansion, or proximity operations.

To locate words, just type them in as you would in a word processor. Letter cases will be ignored.

The wild-card character * (asterisk) may be used to match just the prefix of a word or to ignore the middle of something.

To locate a number of adjacent words in a specific order, surround them with " (double quotation) characters. Putting a - (hyphen) between words will also force order and one word proximity.

Query Examples

Using the Special Pattern Matchers

These pattern matchers are used to locate hard-to-find items within text:

If improperly used these pattern matchers can slow queries. Therefore they require other keyword(s) in the query and are disabled entirely under Page proximity. For more details see the Vortex manual on Query Protection (http://docs.thunderstone.com/site/vortexman/link_qprot.html).

Pattern Matcher Examples

The Numeric Pattern Matcher

This feature allows you to find quantities in textual information in any way they may be represented.

To invoke a numeric value search within a query you precede the value with a '#' (pound / hash character).

Do not put spaces anywhere in the quantity expression unless you surround it with double quotes

Pattern Matcher Examples

Notes: The expression "greater than 0, less than one" above is really good for finding statistical information in the text. For example if you enter the query: "votes #0<1", the program will find "One third of the voters cast their ballots for Clinton" .

Mastering the usage of proximity gives the ability to locate results with greater precision. The Search Appliance input form gives you several options to control the search proximity: 

line 

All query terms must occur on the same line 

sentence 

Query items should all reside within the same sentence

paragraph 

Within the same paragraph or text block 

page 

All items must occur within same HTML document (the default) 

A bar-graph display will be shown any time a ranking search was performed (e.g. all searches except Show Parents).