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How to use a search query form

The following search syntaxes can be used when you search for text by using the "search_query" parameter.

  • Plus ( + ) and minus ( - ) signs

    The plus and minus signs do not join terms, but operate only on the term that follows them.

  • Quotation marks ( " )

    Use quotation marks to combine words into search phrases, for example "HCL Software".

    Note: When you search for strings with special query characters, such as a blank or a colon ( : ), you must enclose your search string in quotation marks.

  • Trailing wildcards

    Use an asterisk ( * ) as a trailing wildcard in your search string, for example softw* .

Using the plus and minus signs

For your query, type any words that describe what you are looking for. Use the plus and minus signs as follows:

  • Put a plus sign ( + ) in front of the words that you want to be present in the returned documents.
  • Put a minus sign ( - ) in front of the words that must not be present in the returned documents.
  • When you use signs, do not leave any space between the sign and the following word qualified by the sign. 

Plus sign examples

  • +thinkpad

    All documents that are retrieved must contain the word thinkpad. A single unsigned word, thinkpad, is also read this way, and is treated by the search engine as +thinkpad.

  • +thinkpad +drivers

    All documents that are retrieved must contain the word thinkpad and the word drivers.

  • +thinkpad drivers

    All documents that are retrieved must contain the word thinkpad, but only optionally the word drivers. 

Minus sign examples

  • +thinkpad -drivers

    All documents that are retrieved must contain the word thinkpad but must not contain the word drivers. 

Note:

  1. Do not use only minus signed terms for your search because they do not produce a result list. The reason is that in this case the search terms are too vague to allow for a meaningful scoring of the found documents.
  2. Use spaces between signed terms in order to distinguish them from terms that contain a minus sign, such as e-mail. Note that e-mail is treated as "e-mail" whereas e -mail is treated as optionally e, and the word mail should not be contained in the resulting documents.