|
|
Use the form below to search for documents in the MPC site containing specific words or combinations of words. The search engine will display a list of matching documents. Each list item is a link to a matching document; if the document has a title it will be shown, otherwise only the document's file name is displayed. A brief explanation of the query language is available, along with examples.
This list gives the rules for formulating queries:
- Multiple consecutive words are treated as a phrase; they must appear in the same order within a matching document.
- Queries are case-insensitive, so you can type your query in uppercase or lowercase.
- You can search for any word except for those in the exception list (for English, this includes a, an, and, as, and other common words), which are ignored during a search.
- Words in the exception list are treated as placeholders in phrase and proximity queries. For example, if you searched for Crime and Punishment, the results could give you Crime or Punishment and Crime and Punishment, because or is a noise word and appears in the exception list.
- Punctuation marks such as the period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), and comma (,) are ignored during a search.
- To use specially treated characters such as &, |, ^, #, @, $, (, ), in a query, enclose your query in quotation marks ().
- To search for a word or phrase containing quotation marks, enclose the entire phrase in quotation marks and then double the quotation marks around the word or words you want to surround with quotes. For example, World-Wide Web or Web searches for World-Wide Web or Web.
- You can use Boolean Operators (AND, OR, and NOT) and the Proximity Operator (NEAR) to specify additional search information.
- The Wildcard Character (*) can match words with a given prefix. The query esc* matches the terms ESC, escape, and so on.
Boolean and proximity operators can create a more precise query.
To Search For |
Example |
Results |
Both terms in the same page |
House and Senate
Or
House & Senate |
Pages with both the words house and senate |
Either term in a page |
police or sheriff Or
police | sheriff |
Pages with the words police or sheriff |
The first term without the second term |
federal and not local Or
federal and !local |
Pages with the word federal but not local |
Both terms in the same page, close together |
civil near rights Or
civil ~ rights |
Pages with the word civil near the word rights |
Wildcard operators help you find pages containing words similar to a given word.
To Search For |
Example |
Results |
Words with the same prefix |
comput* |
Pages with words that have the prefix comput, such as computer, computing, and so on |
Words based on the same stem word |
fly** |
Pages with words based on the same stem as fly, such as flying, flown, flew, and so on |
Use Free Text Queries if you want to enter queries using natural language. Index Server will examine your query, extract nouns and noun phrases and construct a query for you. With free text queries you can enter any text you want, from a proper question, to a string of words and phrases, without worrying about the query language. For example, if you type in the following query:
"Any discussion paper concerning mood swings."
Index Server will create a query for you automatically and begin the search. Note that when you're using free text queries, the regular query language features are disabled and keywords such as AND, OR, and NEAR are interpreted as normal words.
|