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Help for Query Syntax Back

Terms

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 such as "test" or "hello".

A Phrase is a group of words surrounded by double quotes such as "hello dolly".

Multiple terms can be combined together with Boolean operators to form a more complex query (see below).


Fields

x-friend supports querys with fields. When performing a search you can either specify a field, or use the default field.

You can search any field by typing the field name followed by a colon ":" and then the term you are looking for.

The x-friend index contains three fields: name, folder and contents. If you want to find the document entitled "The Right Way" which contains the text "don't go this way" and which is located in a folder named "docs", you can enter:

name:"The Right Way" AND contents:go AND folder:docs

Since contents is the default field, the field indicator is not required.

Note: The field is only valid for the term that it directly precedes, so the query

name:Do it right

Will only find "Do" in the title field. It will find "it" and "right" in the default field (in this case the contents field).


Wildcard Searches

x-friend supports single and multiple character wildcard searches.

To perform a single character wildcard search use the "?" symbol.

To perform a multiple 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?t

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.

te*t

Note: You cannot use a * or ? symbol as the first character of a search.


Fuzzy Searches

x-friend supports fuzzy searches based on the Levenshtein Distance, or Edit Distance algorithm. To 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 "roam" use the fuzzy search:

roam~

This search will find terms like foam and roams


Proximity Searches

x-friend supports finding words are a 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 "server" and "software" within 10 words of each other in a document use the search:

"software server"~10


Boosting a Term

x-friend provides the relevance level of matching documents based on the terms found. To boost 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

software server

and you want the term "software" to be more relevant boost it using the ^ symbol along with the boost factor next to the term. You would type:

software^4 server

This will make documents with the term software appear more relevant. You can also boost Phrase Terms as in the example:

"software server"^4 "software desktop"

By default, the boost factor is 1. Although the boost factor must be positive, it can be less than 1 (e.g. 0.2)


Boolean Operator OR

The OR operator is the default conjunction operator. This means that if there is no Boolean operator between two terms, the OR operator is used. The OR operator links two terms and finds a matching document if either of the terms exist in a document. This is equivalent to a union using sets. The symbol || can be used in place of the word OR.

To search for documents that contain either "software server" or just "software" use the query:

"software server" software

or

"software server" OR software


Boolean Operator AND

The AND operator matches documents where both terms exist anywhere in the text of a single document. This is equivalent to an intersection using sets. The symbol && can be used in place of the word AND.

To search for documents that contain "software server" and "software desktop" use the query:

"software server" AND "software desktop"


Boolean Operator +

The "+" or required operator requires that the term after the "+" symbol exist somewhere in a the field of a single document.

To search for documents that must contain "software" and may contain "desktop" use the query:

+software desktop


Boolean Operator NOT

The NOT operator excludes documents that contain the term after NOT. This is equivalent to a difference using sets. The symbol ! can be used in place of the word NOT.

To search for documents that contain "software server" but not "software desktop" use the query:

"software server" NOT "software desktop"

Note: The NOT operator cannot be used with just one term. For example, the following search will return no results:

NOT "software server"


Boolean Operator -

The "-" or prohibit operator excludes documents that contain the term after the "-" symbol.

To search for documents that contain "software server" but not "software desktop" use the query:

"software server" -"software desktop"


Grouping

x-friend supports using 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 "software" or "server" and "website" use the query:

(software OR server) AND website

This eliminates any confusion and makes sure you that website must exist and either term software or server may exist.


Field Grouping

x-friend supports using parentheses to group multiple clauses to a single field.

To search for a name that contains both the word "return" and the phrase "pink panther" use the query:

name:(+return +"pink panther")


Escaping Special Characters

x-friend supports escaping special characters that are part of the query syntax. The current list special characters are

+ - && || ! ( ) { } [ ] ^ " ~ * ? : \

To escape these character use the \ before the character. For example to search for (1+1):2 use the query:

\(1\+1\)\:2




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