Special Search Considerations
All search engines have some special considerations. When creating queries in Insight, understanding our syntax will help you create the most effective searches.
Using Quotation Marks
Always use quotation marks to enter search words and phrases. Our search engine will do this for you when using our Search Assist: If you enter a search term directly into the Search box, it is easy to forget. But, consider this search:
Author: john brown
This query is not looking for "john brown" in the Author field. It is looking for "john" in the Author field AND "brown" in Anytext. The query translates to this:
Author: "john" AND Anytext: "brown"
To search just the Author field for the name "john brown", use this query:
Author: "john brown"
To search the Author field for the values "joe" or "john" this is the correct search:
Author: "joe" or Author: "john"
The below query, however, will not return your expected results:
Author: "joe" or "john"
Rather than limiting both values to the Author field, the search engine translates the query to:
Author: "joe" OR Anytext: "john"
Notice the difference in found count numbers in the below examples:
Bodytext: "subsidiary" or "affiliate" = 60,873
Bodytext: "subsidiary" or Bodytext: "affiliate" = 60,826
Creating Queries using ORs and ANDs
Understand your goal when constructing queries that contain both OR and AND. Compare the following:
"gas" OR "electric" AND "car" = 389,662 hits
The AND has higher precedence than the OR, and because there are no parentheses to group the clauses, the search engine will translate the query this way:
"gas" OR ("electric" AND "car") = 389,662 hits
But, if you leave out the AND, the search engine will translate this to an implied AND. Now, the OR takes precedence over an implied AND:
"gas" OR "electric" "car" = 11,569 hits
Which means the search is doing this:
("gas" OR "electric") AND "car" = 11,569 hits
Finally, your goal may be to search for the term "gas" or the phrase "electric car":
"gas" OR "electric car" = 384,823 hits
Using Not Contains and Not Equals
Not Contains and Not Equals are used to find documents that do not contain a value or values. For example, perhaps you want to rule out documents that have "call center" selected in the Issues field. This search will rule out documents that have "call", "call center", "call supervisor", "call number" etc. selected in the Issues field.
not (issues : "call")
When you need the value to match your search exactly, use the Is Not (does not equal) syntax:
not (issues = "call center")
When constructing proximity queries, you will define the proximity by inserting a number after the near/. This number establishes the number of words that separates your terms and it includes the end term: searching "patent" near/1 "guarantee" returns documents containing "patent guarantee" in any fields or the text. When you use the Search Assist, you will see the within word used to denote our near searching. If you type directly into the Search box, remember that within is not used as syntax.
With proximity searching, use the field names with the colon (:) before the terms except when searching Anytext.
author: "joe" near/3 author: "baker"
Bodytext: "joe" near/10 Bodytext: "baker"
subject:"water" near/3 subject:"contamination"
For an Anytext near search, enter the terms and the near conditions:
"water" near/3 "contamination"
If you use multiple proximity statements in your query, use parentheses to surround your clauses.
For unknown characters, Insight uses the asterisk (*) for wildcard searching. The asterisk signals the search engine to look for zero or more characters in place of the *. You can use the wildcard when searching Anytext and fielded data. It is important to use as much of the root word/term as possible. Using a single letter with the wildcard is typically not helpful. This Anytext search will return documents containing tech, technology, technical, and any other word beginning with tech in the fields or the text.
"tech*"
This Bodytext search will return documents containing Guire, guire, Maguire, Macguire, MacGuire, mcguire, McGuire in the text.
Bodytext: "*guire"
You can limit your wildcard search by case by selecting the Case Sensitive checkbox at Advanced Settings. Searching "*Bride" would find any instance of Bride and words with characters before Bride, such as McBride, MacBride. The words bride and debride would not be considered hits since they do not contain an uppercase B.
Important: Using a wildcard (*) in a term or phrase with punctuation may not return the expected results. Perhaps you need to search by domains, such as "*lawfirm.com". The search engine interprets the period (.) as a blank space and returns false positive results.
If you are searching an integer field, punctuation is not treated as a blank space; instead, most punctuation will cause a syntax error (except for the minus sign in a negative number). Integer fields contain whole numbers that are positive, negative, or zero (0, 12, -25, and 2000 are all integers). Integers cannot have decimal places or commas. When searching integer fields, such as the FileSize field in Insight, do not include a comma in the number.
Finding Documents with Email Threads
To search for documents with email threads, run this search:
parentdoc="1" and threaddepth > "0"