#GOOGLE BOOLEAN SEARCH CHEAT SHEET HOW TO#

To search for only those documents that contain both the words Bill and Clinton, you can enter Bill Clinton into the Search Box and click the Search button. It is recommended that parentheses be used around the proximity expression when creating complex queries.

When proximity operators are used, the operator only applies to the word, or phrase in quotes, immediately before and after the operator.

For example, title:(legislation environment). It is recommended that parentheses be used with field operators.

When field operators are used, a space should not be placed between the operator and the word or phrase being searched.

The '-' and '+' operators only apply to the word directly attached to the operator.

When the '-' or '+' operators are used, a space should not be placed between the operator and the word entered.

When Boolean operators are used, spaces between words are treated as an implied 'and' until another operator is used in the query.

This primarily occurs with proper names.įor complex queries using operators, the following should be noted: Note: In certain cases, the search engine will automatically assume that two terms separated by a single space should be treated as a single phrase to increase the accuracy of results. In a simple query where operators are not used, spaces between words are treated as an implied 'and' so that the search results will contain documents containing all of the words that have been entered.

#GOOGLE BOOLEAN SEARCH CHEAT SHEET HOW TO#

The sections that follow will show you how to use a variety of characters and operators to narrow your search.Ī space is used to separate words or operators in a search query. In the list below, the precedence of the operators is from first to last. This is done through the use of operator precedence, which is a way of specifying which operators and expressions are evaluated first, second, and so on.

Because queries can be very complex and can use several different operators, there needs to be a way to evaluate expressions unambiguously.

Google boolean search cheat sheet