Simple Queries


When you use simple syntax, the search engine implicitly interprets single words you enter as if they were preceded by the MANY modifier and the STEM operator. By implicitly applying the MANY modifier, the search engine calculates each document's score based on the word density it finds; the denser the occurrence of a word in a document, the higher the document's score.

As a result, the search engine relevance-ranks documents according to word density as it searches for the word you specify, as well as words that have the same stem. For example, "films," "filmed," and filming" are stemmed variations of the word "film." To search for documents containing the word "film" and its stem words, enter the word "film" using simple syntax:

film

When documents are relevance-ranked, they are listed in an order based on their relevance to your search criteria. Relevance-ranked results are presented with the most relevant documents at the top of the list.

Operator/Modifier Names

Left and right angle brackets (< >) are reserved for designating operators and modifiers. They are optional for AND, OR, and NOT, but required in all other cases.

To include a backslash (\) in a search, insert two backslashes for each backslash character. To search for "C:\bin\print," enter the following simple syntax:

C:\\bin\\print

Topic Names

For simple queries, simply enter the topic name as you would a word or phrase.

The search engine also interprets words that are topic names as topics rather than as individual words when you use simple syntax. This means that if the text you enter contains a topic name, the query corresponding to that topic is used instead of the word itself.

Automatic Case-Sensitive Searches

In previous releases, the search engine conducted case-insensitive searches by default. Now the search engine attempts to match the case-sensitivity provided in the query expression when mixed case is used. For search terms entered completely in lower-case or completely in upper-case, the search engine looks for all mixed-case variations.

Search terms with mixed case automatically become case-sensitive. For example, a query on Apple behaves as if you had specified <case>Apple (which would find only the precise string Apple), while a query on apple finds all of the following: APPLE, Apple, apple.

A query all in upper case does not turn on case-sensitive searching. A query on APPLE finds all of the following: APPLE, Apple, apple (as before).

The CASE modifier has the same effect as in previous releases. When used, the case-sensitivity of the query is preserved. For example, if you want to search for the term "OCX" and want to find instances of "OCX" in upper case only, you could enter the following query:

<CASE> <WORD> OCX

The search engine would interpret the above query expression to mean: find all documents containing one or more instances of the word "OCX" spelled in upper case, not mixed case.

Auto-match Phrase to Topic Name

If your query expression includes a phrase, the search engine tries to match the phrase with a topic name by substituting the spaces with hyphens. For example, if the phrase "web server" is used in a query expression, the search engine looks for a topic named "web-server." If a match is found, the topic name is used to perform the search.

Partial matches are not valid. For example, the search engine does not match the phrase "web server features" with the topic name "web-server;" it matches the topic name "web-server-features."





Copyright © 2001, Verity, Inc. All rights reserved.