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ParlInfo Search Tips

Search Operators

Search operators are used to best effect when searching free text in the main search box on the Basic Search and the Advanced Search/Browse screens.

You may use search operators to build highly specific search expressions.

These operators negate the need to key in words such as AND, OR and NOT. If these words are keyed in, they are treated as part of the search query, so that the search jones or smith will generate a results list of records containing the words 'jones' and 'or' and 'smith'. Note: Spacing around search operators is generally optional, so that

• Example:

  smith|jones|brown

  is the same query as

  smith | jones | brown

The first form is quicker to type. The second form is (probably) easier to read. However, four operators must be closed up without a space. See the following table of Search Operators.

Search Operators

Below is a description of each search operator.

space - AND

• Search for document records containing both the term that precedes the space and the term that follows the space.
  • Example: to find 'speaker AND house' use

    speaker house

| - OR (vertical bar found as the upper case of the backslash)

• Search for document records containing either the term that precedes the | operator or the term that follows the | operator.
  • Example: to find 'house OR senate' use

    house | senate

  The OR operator has higher precedence than the AND operator.
  • Example:

    jones | smith 2007

    is the same search as

    (jones | smith) 2007

  • Example:

    jones | smith 2006 | 2007

    is the same search as

    (jones | smith) (2006 | 2007)

  You can over-ride this default order by using your own parentheses.

, - OR (comma)

• The comma operator is an alternative form of the | operator. It is typically used to combine terms in the same field.
  • Example:

    Author:jones,smith,brown

  The comma operator must not have spaces around it.

- — NOT (hyphen)

• Search for document records containing the term that precedes the - operator but not the term that follows the - operator.
  • Example: to find 'governor NOT general' use

    governor -general

  The - operator must immediately precede the negated term, i.e. there is a space before the operator and no blank space between the operator and the negated term.

(...) - Grouping (parentheses)

• Parentheses are used to group search expressions so that they are evaluated in your preferred order.
  • Example: to give AND a higher precedence than OR,  'Australia AND New Zealand, OR Australasia' use

    (australia "new zealand") | australasia

Field: - (field-name followed by colon)

• Search for document records containing a term in a specific location, such as in its title.
  • Example: to find 'Federation' in the title use

    Title:federation

  The Field: operator must immediately precede the search term. In other words, field names must not be followed by a space. Field names are case sensitive (while search terms are not).
  • Example:

    Title:federation

    is correct;

    title:federation

    is not correct.

>> - Range (double greater than)

• Search for document records containing the date within a range from the term that precedes the >> operator to the term that follows the >> operator.
  • Example: to find 'Dates from 21/01/2001 to 21/01/2002' use

    Date:21/01/2001>>21/01/2002

  Note: Take care to parenthesise ranges when used with other terms.

~ - Stemming (tilde found as the upper case of the key to the left of number 1)

• Search for document records containing a word in both its singular and plural forms, such as 'bill' or 'bills'. The ~ stem operator will
  • pluralize a singular word
  • singularize a plural word
  • and match both forms.
  • Example: to find 'party' or 'parties', use

    party~

    which matches: party, parties
  • Example: use

    parties~

    to match party, parties
  Note: stemming operator '~' is similar to the wild card operator '?'. The difference is that stemming is based on an algorithm (that tries to work out singular and plural) where the wildcard will find all words that have the characters before in common.
  • Example:

    person~

    will find person and persons instances only, while

    person?

    will find person, persons, personnel, personality and all other words with 'person' as a base.
  See ? - Wild card (question mark) - Multiple Characters below.

# - Wild card (hash) - Single Character

• Search for document records containing words that are spelled with a variable character, such 'organize' or 'organise'. The # wild card matches any single character.
  • Example: to find 'organize' or 'organise', use

    organi#e

    , which matches document records containing organize, organise

? - Wild card (question mark) - Multiple Characters

• Search for document records containing only parts of the search term, such as words that start with the search term. A ? wild card matches any text that could complete the term (including no additional text).
  • Example: to find words starting with 'par', use

    par?

    which matches document records containing par, part, party, parliament, ...
  • Example: to find words starting with 'par' and ending in 'y', use

    par?y

    which matches document records containing party, particularly, parliamentary, ...
  Note: you must confine ? wild card searches to terms that have at least three characters. Wild card searches on shorter terms are likely to find more matching document records and take longer than you might expect because of the number of possibilities that need to be examined. Note: A ? wild card by itself in the main search box will find all records, but only use this after collections and/or subcollections have been selected. Response time will be slower if this type of search is used.

" ... " - Phrase (double quotes)

• Search for document records containing an exact phrase. Phrases can not include the '>' or '<' characters.
  • Example: to find the sequence of words 'fiscal policy', use

    "fiscal policy"

More help

For more help or assistance, please phone (02) 6277 2020.