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This page provides the basic guide to the syntax of Synote search engine.
The following several queries will return a syntax error:
(1) A query containing no word(s), but only special characters or other none word characters
(2) A query contains word(s), but ends with a * character
The current list of special characters is
+ - && || ! ( ) { } [ ] ^ " ~ * ? : \
You can use special charaters in wildcard search
We DO NOT recommend you to search these special characters. To escape these character use the \ before the character.
A query is broken up into terms and operators. There are two types of terms: Single Terms and Phrases. A Single Term is a single word, for example "test". Phrase is a group of words surrounded by double quotes, like "hi there". Multiple terms can be combined together with Boolean operators to form a more complex query (see below).
When performing a search you can either specify a field, or use the default field. The field names and default field is implementation specific. In our case text is the default field and it's indicator is not required. You can search any field by typing the field name followed by a colon ":" and then the term you are looking for.
If you want to find the document entitled "INFO1016 CECIL", you can enter:
title:"INFO1016 CECIL"Note: The field is only valid for the term that it directly precedes, so the query title:INFO1016 CECIL will only find "INFO1016" in the title field. It will find "CECIL" in the default field (in this case the text field).
It is possible to modify query terms to get a wide range of searching options.
Single and multiple character wildcard search is supported within single terms (not within phrase queries). To perform a single character wildcard search use the "?" symbol. The single character wildcard search looks for terms that match that with the single character replaced. For example, to search for "text" or "test" you can use the search:
te?tTo perform a multiple character wildcard search use the "*" symbol. Multiple character wildcard searches looks for 0 or more characters. For example, to search for test, tests or tester, you can use the search:
test*You can also use the wildcard searches in the middle of a term or as the first character of a search.
te*tTo do a fuzzy search use the tilde, "~", symbol at the end of a Single word Term. For example to search for a term similar in spelling to "macro" use the fuzzy search:
macro~This search will except the term "macro" find terms like "macros" and "micro".
You can also find words that are within a specific distance away. To do a proximity search use the tilde, "~", symbol at the end of a Phrase. For example to search for a "unique" and "application" within 5 words of each other in a document use the search:
"unique application"~5Range Queries allow one to match documents whose field(s) values are between the lower and upper bound specified by the Range Query. Range Queries can be inclusive or exclusive of the upper and lower bounds. Sorting is done lexicographically. For example
title:[Info1016 TO Info6002]will find all documents whose titles are between Info1016 and Info6002, including Info1016 and Info6002. Inclusive range queries are denoted by square brackets. Exclusive range queries are denoted by curly brackets.
To boost a relevance of a term use the caret, "^", symbol with a boost factor (a number) at the end of the term you are searching. The higher the boost factor, the more relevant the term will be.
Boosting allows you to control the relevance of a document by boosting its term. For example, if you are searching for
web multimediaand you want the term "multimedia" to be more relevant, boost it using the ^ symbol along with the boost factor next to the term. You would type:
web multimedia^4This will make documents with the term multimedia appear more relevant. You can also boost Phrase Terms as in the example:
"Second Life"^4 "Dragon NaturallySpeaking"By default, the boost factor is 1.
Boolean operators allow terms to be combined through logic operators AND, "+", OR, NOT and "-" (must be ALL CAPS).
The OR operator (or the symbol ||) links two terms and finds a matching document if either of the terms exist in a document.
To search for documents that contain either "annotating multimedia" or just "multimedia" use the query:
"annotating multimedia" multimediaor
"annotating multimedia" OR multimediaThe AND operator (or the symbol &&) matches documents where both terms exist anywhere in the text of a single document.
To search for documents that contain "annotating multimedia" and "University of Southampton " use the query:
"Second Life" AND "Dragon NaturallySpeaking"The "+" or required operator requires that the term after the "+" symbol exist somewhere in the field of a single document.
To search for documents that must contain "life" and may contain "dragon" use the query:
+life dragonThe NOT operator (or the symbol !) excludes documents that contain the term after NOT.
To search for documents that contain "Second Life" but not "Dragon NaturallySpeaking" use the query:
"Second Life" NOT "Dragon NaturallySpeaking"Note: The NOT operator cannot be used with just one term. For example, the following search will return no results:
NOT "Second Life"The "-" or prohibit operator excludes documents that contain the term after the "-" symbol.
To search for documents that contain "Second Life" but not "Dragon NaturallySpeaking" use the query:
"Second Life" -"Dragon NaturallySpeaking"It is possible to use parentheses to group clauses to form sub queries. This can be very useful if you want to control the boolean logic for a query.
To search for either "run" or "compile" and "cecil" use the query:
(run OR compile) AND cecilThis eliminates any confusion and makes sure that "cecil" must exist and either term "run" or "compile" may exist.
It Is possible to use parentheses to group multiple clauses to a single field.
To search for a title that contains both the word "video" and the phrase "Professional Issues" use the query:
title:(+video +"Professional Issues")