IICLE - Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education

Search Tips

Using Logic Operators

Set logic is easier to use and provides more abilities than boolean. The examples below make reference to single keywords, but keep in mind that each keyword can represent an entire list of things or any of the special pattern matchers.

Sets (or lists) of things are specified by placing the elements within parenthesis, separated by commas. Example: (bob,joe,sam,sue) . In the examples below, you could replace any of the keywords with a list like this.

The default behavior of the search is to locate an intersection (or 'AND') of every element within a query. This means that the query: "child custody petition" is the equivalent to the boolean query: "child AND custody AND petition."

- (without): The - (minus) is the most commonly used logic symbol. It means the answer should EXCLUDE references to that item.

+ (mandatory): The + (plus) symbol in front of a search item means that the answer MUST INCLUDE that item. This is generally used in conjunction with the permutation operation.

@N (permute): The @ followed by a number indicates how many intersections to locate of the terms in your query. This may be confusing at first, but it is very powerful.

The plus(+) and minus(-) operators must be attached to the term to which they apply. There must be a space between the operator and any preceding term.

Correct	Incorrect
bob +sam -joe	bob + sam - joe
	bob+sam-joe

Query	Finds
bob sam joe	Bob with Sam and Joe
bob sam -joe	Bob with Sam without Joe
bob sam joe @1	Bob with Sam, or Bob with Joe, or Joe with Sam
A B C D @1	AB or AC or AD or BC or BD or CD
+A B C D @1	ABC or ABD or ACD
A B C -D @1	( AB or AC or BC ) without D

Phrase Matching / Wildcard Searches

Just type the keywords as if they were being typed into a word processing program. Letter cases are ignored.

The wild-card character * (asterisk) may be used to match just the prefix of a word or to ignore the middle of something.

If the item you wish to locate is more complicated than the simple * wild-card can accomplish, try using the regular expression matcher (see Regular Expression Matcher section).

To locate a number of adjacent words in a specific order, surround them with “ ” (double quotation) characters. Putting a - (hyphen) between words will also force order and one word proximity.

Query	Locates
john	john, John
"john public"	John Public
web-browser	Web browser, web-browser
John*Public	John Q. Public, John Public
456adef	1-456-789-ABCDEF
activate	activate, activation, activated, ... *

Using the Thesaurus

A vocabulary of over 250,000 word and phrase associations is available. Each entry is generally classifiable by either its meaning or part of speech.

To expand the meaning of a word or phrase within your query, precede it with a ~ (tilde) character.

Regular Expression Matcher

The Regular EXpression pattern matcher allows you to find those items that cannot be located with a simple wildcard search. To invoke the REX regular expression pattern matcher within a query precede the expression with a '/' (forward slash).

Expression	Purpose
/19[789][0-9]	Find years between 1970 and 1999
/[1-9][01][0-9]-?[0-9]{3}-=[0-9]{4}	Any USA Phone Number
/\n=\space+Clinton	Find 'Clinton' as the first word in a Paragraph
/\upper=\lower+\space\upper=\lower+	Proper Names without initials like: John Smith
/(abc904)	finds '(abc904)' anywhere it exists

Approximate Pattern Matching For Fuzzy Searches

Locates misspellings, typos, and approximations, The approximate pattern matcher lets you find "looks roughly like" or "sounds like" information. To invoke a fuzzy match precede the word or pattern with the '%' (percent) character.

This pattern matcher locates items by examining how "closely" the text matches your query item. It uses percentages of difference as a measure, and will default to finding items with 80% similar content. You may specify a different percentage on the query line by following the '%' with a two digit number that represents the value you desire.

Expression	Will Find
ronald %regan	Ronald Raygun, Ronald Re~an, Ronald 8eagan
%75MYPARTNO9045d/6a	Anything within 75% of looking like MYPARTNO9045d/6a
mo* %quadaffi	mohamar kadaffi, Mo Qadaffi, etc...

Note: Since fuzzy searching by its very nature tends to bring back more than you really wanted, it is always a really good idea to try to "anchor" your fuzzy term with another keyword. (Like the %regan example).

Quantity Searching

The Numeric Pattern Matcher

Numeric pattern matching finds quantities. To invoke a numeric value search within a query you precede the value with a '#' (pound / hash character).

Do not put spaces anywhere in the quantity expression unless you surround it with double quotes.

To Find	Syntax	Example Match
any value	##	a few dozen
equal to	#5000	five thousand
greater than	#>5000	2.2 million
less than	#<5000	1,000.00
greater than or equal	#>=5000	5,000.01
less than or equal	#<=5000	four thousand nine hundred and 59/100
between	#>5000<6000	5.5 kilotons

Interesting Examples

Expression	Will Find
#>0<1	15 percent, 500 milligrams, 0.25, 15 sixteenths, 5/32
#666	six hundred three score and six
#>million	1.6 billion dollars
#>1e6<1e12	five gigabytes, 5,000,000,000, 2.2 million

Notes: The expression "greater than 0, less than one" above is really good for finding statistical information in the text. For example if you enter the query: "votes #>0<1", the program will find: "One third of the voters cast their ballots for Clinton".