Proximity Operators


Proximity operators specify the relative location of specific words in the document; that is, specified words must be in the same phrase, paragraph, or sentence for a document to be retrieved. In the case of the NEAR and NEAR/N operators, retrieved documents are relevance-ranked based on the proximity of the specified words. When proximity operators are nested, use the ones with the broadest scope first. Phrases or individual words can appear within SENTENCE or PARAGRAPH operators, and SENTENCE operators can appear within PARAGRAPH operators. The following table briefly describes each proximity operator; see "Operators for Searching Full Text" in Chapter 3 for examples and more detailed descriptions.

Operator Name
Description
IN
Selects documents that contain specified values in one or more document zones. A document zone represents a region of a document, such as the document's summary, date, or body text. To search for a term only within the one or more zones upon which certain conditions have been placed, qualify the IN operator with the WHEN operator.
NEAR
Selects documents containing specified search terms. The closer the search terms are within a document, the higher the document's score.
NEAR/N
Selects documents containing two or more search terms within N number of words of each other, where N is an integer between 1 and 1024. The closer the search terms are within a document, the higher the document's score.
PARAGRAPH
Selects documents that include all of the search elements you specify within the same paragraph.
PHRASE
Selects documents that include the phrase you specify. A phrase is a grouping of two or more words that occur in a specific order.
SENTENCE
Selects documents that include all of the words you specify within the same sentence.




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