Search Operators

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Search Operators

Search Operators allow you to write your own advanced queries to garner stronger search results from your case records. Once you learn how to use Search Operators, you start utilizing complex searches that will help you locate information that might otherwise takes hours of review to uncover.

Searching in CloudNine™ LAW, CloudNine™ Explore, and CloudNine™ Explore Web is not case sensitive, so you do not have to enter all caps when typing in Search Operators. You should type spaces between search terms and the operator (LayK AND LangW), except when searching with characters or using symbols and punctuation. For more information, refer to the Search Operators table below.

There are several different types of Search Operators:

Document Level (Boolean) - Boolean operators are based on the binary logic used in computers today, producing strict true or false results. In CloudNine™ LAW, CloudNine™ Explore, and CloudNine™ Explore Web, Boolean operators search at the document level. Boolean operators used in CloudNine™ LAW, CloudNine™ Explore, and CloudNine™ Explore Web include AND, OR, and AND NOT.

Field Level (Context) - Context operators search at the field level. The search term you are trying to locate may still exist elsewhere in your case data (in another field or spreadsheet), you are just narrowing your search to one field.  CloudNine™ LAW, CloudNine™ Explore, and CloudNine™ Explore Web use the search operator CONTAINS to locate text within a specified field. An alternative to typing CONTAINS is typing double colons (::). When you use this option, you must have a space before and after the double colons.  Field names must have quotes around them. For example, when you search the Author field, your query should by typed as: "Author".

Word Level (Proximity) - Proximity operators search at the word level and are useful when looking for content that appears in records either in direct succession, adjacent order, or in close succession to each other within a specified range. This number refers to the maximum number of intervening indexed words.

Character Level (Wild-cards) - Wild-card operators are symbols you can use as a substitute for characters or series of characters in a search term, creating a broader search with stronger results.  Using wild-card characters helps you locate:

oVariations on a root word

oPossible misspellings of a name or word

oWords or names that might include punctuation (apostrophes)

Search Operators

Operator

Query

Results

DOCUMENT LEVEL

 

 

AND contains both words

lay AND lang

Finds all records with both the words: lay and lang

OR contains either word

lay OR lang

Finds all records with either lay or lang, or both

AND NOT contains first word, but not second

lay AND NOT lang

Finds all records with lay, but not lang

WORD LEVEL

 

 

w/5

lay w/5 lang

Finds lay within five words of lang

not w/12

lay not w/12 lang

Finds lay where it is not within 12 words of lang

w/5 xfirstword

lay w/5 xfirstword

Finds lay when it occurs in the first five words of a document

% performs a fuzzy search

Phil%

Finds Phil, Philip, and Philllip

* Fuzzy searching finds words even if they are misspelled. The position of the % character determines how many letters at the start of the word must match exactly. For example: ba%nana must begin with ba and have at most one difference between it and banana. The query: b%%anana finds words that begin with b and have at most two differences between it and banana.

For more information, see Fuzzy Searching.

# performs a phonic search

#Smith

Finds words that sounds alike, such as Smith and Smythe

For more information, see Phonic Searching.

~ stemming at the end of a word finds grammatical variations of a word

manage~

apply~

Finds manager and management

Finds applies, applied, applying

For more information, see Stemming.

& finds synonyms

&fast

Finds quickly

For more information, see Synonym Searching.

//text contains

//text contains Smith

Finds Smith within the content of the documents only.

Does not search for Smith in the a document's metadata fields.

FIELD LEVEL

 

 

CONTAINS

"Filename" CONTAINS meeting

Finds meeting in the File Name field

* Text before the CONTAINS operator must be a field name and the field name must be in quotes.

** The CONTAINS operator cannot be used with  the NEAR or BEFORE operators.

::

"Filename" :: meeting

Short form alternative for the CONTAINS operator. Returns the same results: Finds meeting in the File Name field.

Requires a space before and after the double colons. The field name must be in quotes.

CHARACTER LEVEL

 

 

? represents any character in its place in the character sequence

wom?n

??99

10:??

Finds the following: woman, women

Finds all dates in the year 1999

Finds all timeframes of 10:00 o'clock (a.m. or p.m.), i.e. 10:00, 10:42

= matches any single digit

=55

=12

Finds all records that contain the number 55

Finds dates with the number 12, such as 12/01/2001 and 08/12/2005

* matches multiple characters

Phil*

Finds Phil, Philip

## regular expression

"##app.*ie"

Finds apple pie

Finds search terms that includes a combination of characters. A regular expression included in a search query must be in double quotes and must begin with ##.

For more information, see Regular Expressions.

NUMERIC

 

 

<                    less than

< 50

Florida < 32803

Finds numbers less than 50

Finds Florida followed by a number less than 32803

>                    greater than

> 50

Finds numbers greater than 50

<=                  less than or equal to

<=50

Finds numbers less than or equal to 50

>=                  greater than or equal to

>=50

Finds numbers greater than or equal to 50

=                     equal to

=50

Finds the number 50

<x and >x       not equal to

<50 and >50

Finds all numbers except 50

~~                  numeric range

10 ~~ 20

Finds any numbers between the two numbers, such as between 10 and 20

For more information, see Numeric Range Searching.

TO

10 TO 20

Finds numbers in text within the specified range

* The TO operator requires numeric text before and after the operator.