BOOLEAN SEARCH EXCLUDE HOW TO

Unless you are searching for common words, with every AND you add to your Boolean query, the fewer results you will typically get.Įxample: Java AND Oracle AND SQL AND AJAX It should be used for targeting required skills, experience, technologies, or titles you would like to limit your results to. The AND operator is inclusionary and thus limits your search. Nothing will explode and your searches will execute.Īnd now, back to the Boolean basics… Boolean Search Operator: AND And here’s a quick fact: you don’t have to capitalize Boolean operators on any of the major job boards and many of the major ATS’s. Now that I have your attention, this post is going to focus on the basic Boolean search operators and search modifiers symbols and will not go into any detail of the many special Internet-only search commands/operators.Īlthough a great many people seem to think that Boolean = Internet search, Boolean logic and searching has been around WAY before the Internet. View the Minimum Should Match section for more information.I never cease to be amazed by what you can find on the Internet and what people take pictures of. If your results are not what you expected when using compound boolean syntax, review your query and make sure the appropriate terms or phrases are grouped together, remembering the inside out rule, and that each set of parentheses has an opening and closing parenthesis.Ī closely related query syntax technique is minimum should match. When using parentheses make sure there is an opening and closing parenthesis in the appropriate places to ensure proper execution. Parentheses give you a lot of control over your search syntax. Finally, of the remaining records, any records that contain the search term asthma will be excluded from the results returned. Of those records, only records containing lung cancer will be retained. The above search will first consider the inner set of parentheses, COPD OR lung disease, finding records that contain both the search term and search phrase, or just one of them. For example: (“lung cancer” AND (COPD OR “lung disease”)) NOT asthma Likewise, nested parentheses are considered from the inside out. Just like in math, the terms or phrases contained inside of parentheses are considered together. You can control the order your search terms and phrases are searched by using parentheses to group search terms and phrases. Compound Boolean Search Syntax and the Power of Parentheses The above search will return records containing either COPD or lung disease while excluding records containing the search term asthma.

For example: (COPD OR “lung disease”) NOT asthma The NOT operator can be implemented in one of two ways, either by using the boolean operator NOT or by using the minus sign ( - ) directly in front of the term or phrase to be excluded. NOT is best used when searching for a topic that often co-occurs with another topic that you wish to exclude. For more information see the Relevance section. Not all terms or phrases have to occur in the records returned, however, results are sorted by relevance, meaning records that contain a higher number of the search terms or phrases, or have a higher quality match for the fields searched, will be returned higher in the results list. The above search will return records where at least one of the search terms or phrases occurs in the records returned. For example: “lung disease' OR COPD OR “lung cancer” Use the OR operator when it is not necessary for all terms or phrases to occur in each of the resulting records. Each of the results returned will include one, several, or all of the search terms or phrases included in the query. ORĬonversely, OR is best used when you want to do a broad search about related topics. The above search requires that the records returned contain both the search term and search phrase. ANDĪND is best used to narrow search results by requiring all of the search terms or phrases in the query to occur in each record returned.

BOOLEAN SEARCH EXCLUDE HOW TO

It is important to understand when to use each boolean operator and how to construct compound boolean syntax to get the most out of your search.

Boolean search logic is executed by using the operators AND, OR, or NOT between each search term or phrase. Boolean operators help define the logical relationship among multiple search terms and phrases.

Boolean search exclude