Home | Glossary

Quick links: |  | Plugin/set selection Case Precedence of terms Boolean operators Special rules

|  |  | Operators

Plugin/set selection To quickly select which plugin or search set DEVONagent Express uses, start the query with the name of the plugin or search set or keyword followed by a colon.
Example: google:devonthink
Case Terms are NOT case sensitive. You may use capitalization for proper names in a query, but DEVONagent Express will ignore case in interpreting the query. Precedence of terms Search terms and associated operators will be interpreted from left to right, except as modified by including portions of the query within parentheses. Boolean operators The operators (often called Boolean operators) are words or symbols that establish logical rules for the terms in the search query. These are: term1 AND term2: Contains term1 AND term2 term1 BUT term2: Contains term1 AND term2 term1 OR term2: Contains term1 OR term2 term1 XOR term2: Contains term1 or term2, but not both term1 EOR term2: Contains term1 or term2, but not both NOT term: Does not contain term "term1": Contains the string term1, in exactly this form; uses fuzzy matching (e.g. "DEVON tech" matches also "DEVON-tech" or "DEVON++++tech"); accepts also the '*' operator, like 'BEFORE' but more precise. Besides the classic Boolean operators, DEVONagent Express features a number of operators usually only found in high-end databases. Use them as a replacement for AND and "quotes" to fine tune your query. term1 NEAR term2: term1 occurs 10 words or less before or after term2 term1 NEAR/n term2: term1 occurs n or less words before or after term2 term1 BEFORE term2: term1 occurs before term2 term1 BEFORE/n term2: term1 occurs n or less words before term2 term1 NEXT term2: term1 occurs right before term2 (shortcut for BEFORE/1) term1 NEXT/n term2: term 1 occurs n or less words before term2 (synonym for BEFORE/n) term1 AFTER term2: term1 occurs after term2 term1 AFTER/n term2: term1 occurs n or less words after term2 term1 OPT term2: term1 is mandatory but term2 is optional. If term2 is also found the result is ranked higher. ~term1: Contains all words that begin or end with term1 (words containing term1 as a part of the word; depends on the queried search engine)
Note: See chapter Designing a Search Query for examples on how to use all these operators effectively.
For convenience, some of these operators can also be abbreviated using commonly used symbols: AND: &, &&, + OR: |, || XOR: ^, ^^ NOT: !, -
Note: The symbols above also are used by the Finder and Spotlight for searches. Enter the vertical ruler character for the OR operator by pressing ⇧7, ⇧\ or the appropriate keyboard combination for your keyboard layout.
Special rules To search for a word that is also the name of an operator, put the word inside quotation marks. The following example searches all four terms including the word "near":
Example: Beach "near" Los Angeles