Search Help

Your search query will contain terms, either:

• Single words - with optional wildcards (see below)and / or
• Multi-word phrases - surrounded by double quotes, e.g., "world war two"

You can also use Operators and Grouping (see below) for more complex queries.

Wildcards

Single and multiple character wildcards can be used in single word searches (not within phrase queries).

A single character ? wildcard search finds results that match your term with the single character replaced. Example: To find tent, test or text you could search for:

te?t

A multiple character * wildcard search finds any number of characters. Example: To find test, tests or tester, you could search for:

test*

Note: You cannot use a * or ? symbol as the first character of a query.

Operators

Operators allow terms to be combined. This search system supports OR, AND, and NOT operators (please note: operators must be ALL CAPS).

OR - is the default operator. This means that unless you specify another operator, OR is used. The OR operator finds results where either of your terms are found. Example: To find either world war or just world, you could search for:

"world war" world

or

"world war" OR world

AND - finds results where both of your terms are found. Example: To find world war and war two, you could search for:

"world war" AND "war two"

NOT - excludes results that contain the specified term. Example: To find world war but not war two, you could search for:

"world war" NOT "war two"

Note: The NOT operator cannot be used with just one term. For example, the following search will return no results:

NOT "world war"

Grouping

This search system also supports parentheses to group terms into sub queries. Example: To find either world OR war, AND website, you could search for:

(world OR war) AND website

Query Terms

• Single words - with optional wildcards (see below)
• Multi-word phrases - surrounded by double quotes

Wildcards

• Single word searches only
• ? wildcard finds any results with the single character replaced. Example: To find tent, test or text you could search for: te?t
• * wildcard finds any number of characters. Example: To find test, tests or tester, you could search for: test*
• ? or * wildcards cannot be first character of a query

Operators

• Use Operators to combine terms
• OR, AND, and NOT are supported
• OR is the default operator
• NOT cannot be used with just one term

Grouping

• Parentheses ( and ) are supported to form sub queries. Example: To find either world OR war, AND website, you could search for: (world OR war) AND website