ATFA Site Search

Use the form below to search for documents in the ATFA Web Site containing specific words or combinations of words. A brief explanation of the query language is available, along with examples.

The text search engine allows queries to be formed from arbitrary Boolean expressions containing the keywords AND, OR, and NOT, and grouped with parentheses.

The text search engine will display a weighted list of matching documents, with better matches shown first. Each list item is a link to a matching document; if the document has a title it will be shown, otherwise only the document's file name is displayed.

Query Language

The following is an excerpt from the Microsoft Index Server Guide.

This list gives the rules for formulating queries:

Multiple consecutive words are treated as a phrase; they must appear in the same order within a matching document.
Queries are case-insensitive, so you can type your query in uppercase or lowercase.
You can search for any word except for those in the exception list (for English, this includes a, an, and, as, and other common words), which are ignored during a search.
Words in the exception list are treated as placeholders in phrase and proximity queries. For example, if you searched for “Word for Windows”, the results could give you “Word for Windows” and “Word and Windows”, because for is a noise word and appears in the exception list.
Punctuation marks such as the period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), and comma (,) are ignored during a search.
To use specially treated characters such as &, |, ^, #, @, $, (, ), in a query, enclose your query in quotation marks (“).
To search for a word or phrase containing quotation marks, enclose the entire phrase in quotation marks and then double the quotation marks around the word or words you want to surround with quotes. For example, “World-Wide Web or ““Web””” searches for World-Wide Web or “Web”.
You can use Boolean Operators (AND, OR, and NOT) and the Proximity Operator (NEAR) to specify additional search information.
The Wildcard Character (*) can match words with a given prefix. The query esc* matches the terms “ESC,” “escape,” and so on.

Boolean and Proximity Operators

Boolean and proximity operators can create a more precise query.

To Search For	Example	Results
Both terms in the same page	`access and basic` —Or— `access & basic`	Pages with both the words “access” and “basic”
Either term in a page	`cgi or isapi`—Or— `cgi \| isapi`	Pages with the words “cgi” or “isapi”
The first term without the second term	`access and not basic`—Or— `access & ! basic`	Pages with the word “access” but not “basic”
Both terms in the same page, close together	`excel near project`—Or— `excel ~ project`	Pages with the word “excel” near the word “project”

Wildcards

Wildcard operators help you find pages containing words similar to a given word.

To Search For	Example	Results
Words with the same prefix	`comput*`	Pages with words that have the prefix “comput,” such as “computer,” “computing,” and so on
Words based on the same stem word	`fly**`	Pages with words based on the same stem as “fly,” such as “flying,” “flown,” “flew,” and so on

information retrieval

finds documents containing 'information' or 'retrieval'

information or retrieval

same as above

information and retrieval

finds documents containing both 'information' and 'retrieval'

information not retrieval

finds documents containing 'information' but not 'retrieval'

(information not retrieval) and WAIS

finds documents containing 'WAIS', plus 'information' but not 'retrieval'

web*

finds documents containing words starting with 'web'

ATFA Site Search

Query Language

Boolean and Proximity Operators

Wildcards

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ATFA.Net
Revised: August 19, 2005 .

ATFA Site Search

Query Language

Boolean and Proximity Operators

Wildcards

Back to Top

ATFA.Net Revised: August 19, 2005 .

ATFA.Net
Revised: August 19, 2005 .