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Boolean Logic Quick Reference Guide
Boolean Logic Quick Reference Guide

To create a custom search string that incorporates numerous concepts or phrases, Boolean logic may be useful.

Mark Jones avatar
Written by Mark Jones
Updated over 11 months ago

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The keyword search bar supports Boolean logic (AND, OR, NOT, NEAR, PHRASE, *). To see a full list of Boolean operators, enter a question mark ( ? ) into the keyword search bar.

"AND" & "OR"

AND: requires that both words or phrases be returned in search results (e.g. student AND loan)

OR: finds search results containing either term or phrase (e.g. car OR automobile)

Group: Use parentheses to isolate single concepts within a longer search string.

"NOT" & "Exact"

NOT: allows exclusion of words or phrases from results (e.g. Trump NOT Ivanka)

Exact: Use quotation marks to limit results to the exact word or phrase specified (e.g. "selling" will prevent stemming of sell, sells, etc.)

"NEAR" & "PHRASE"

NEAR(): finds keywords in close proximity to each other within a given sentence (e.g. NEAR2(travel space))

PHRASE(): finds keywords in close proximity to each other within a given sentence in a set order (e.g. PHRASE1(freedom speech))

"TITLE"

TITLE(): searches for all documents with a keyword/smart synonym in the title of a document. Some examples of leveraging the TITLE operator are below

  1. Searching TITLE(merger) will search for all documents with "merger" (a smart synonym) in the title. This basic search is the same as running a Titles Only search.

  2. Searching TITLE(merger) wearables will return results with documents that have merger in the title and hits for "wearables" in the documents

  3. Searching pets NOT TITLE(dogs) will return docs with mentions of pets whose document titles do not include "dog"

Note:

  • It is possible to nest operators such as PHRASE/NEAR inside TITLE

  • Terms outside of the TITLE operator still match both title and content

Wildcards & Stemming

Wildcard: Use the asterisk ( * ) to search for words that contain a given sequence of letters. (e.g. law* will find terms that stemming alone will not like lawyer, lawsuit, etc.)

Sentiment Smart Synonyms & Numbers

Positive & Negative: Search the words "positive" and "negative" to add sentiment to your search string, and find mentions of your search in a positive/negative context

Numbers: Search #, $, or % to find specific numbers within your search. Pro Tip: pair these with a term for best results (ex: Revenue #)

In:[content] Source Operator

in:[content] + Tab : Easily filter for content right in the keyword search bar, removing the need to click 2 to 3 times into a filter menu.

  • Type in:[content], followed by a comma to automatically add another in: operator to your query

  • Note: the source operator is not additive to existing content sets. Running a search with a source operator will overwrite the content sets already applied

Non-recognized Characters: + & | ! {} ^ ' ~ ? : \

Below is an example search using Boolean logic that searches for mentions of government contract wins.

Search Syntax: (((win OR won OR bid OR "received") AND (business OR contract OR contractor)) OR PHRASE1(Capture "Management") OR PHRASE1(Capture "Manager") OR PHRASE1(Capture "Managers") OR PHRASE0(Capture "Mgr") OR NEAR1(Capture Lifecycle) OR NEAR10(submit "RFP")) NOT "Business Wire"

Begin your search


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