Click to return to Standard Search or Alternative Search

Help using site search:
The STAT-USA/Internet site provides two options for site searching. For most users, the first search type -- "Standard Search" -- is all they will ever need. For people used to Boolean boxes, there is an "Alternative Search".

Standard Search:

Most people just enter individual words like: Japan or United States. When you do this, the search engine will look for all words entered appearing anywhere in the document. If there is more than one word, all words will appear in the documents returned but they may not appear together. You can enclose phrases in quotation marks if you want.

All of the following work under the simple search:

	China
	"United States"
	United States (is the same as United and States)
	china textiles (will find both words but not necessarily together)
	China or Bolivia (you can use "|" instead of "or" if you prefer)
	China and Bolivia (you can use "&" instead of "and" if you prefer)
	"United States" and Japan
	(Japan or Bolivia) and "United States"

In addition, the Standard Search allows you to select the STAT-USA databases that you want to search. By default, all databases are searched. However, you can unclick any databases that you don't want to search. You can also select categories of databases (e.g. "Leads"). You can also select "-NONE-" and then add whatever databases you want to search.

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Alternative Search:

Most of the same searching features are supported but they're implemented in a considerably differently way.

Imagine you want to retrieve all reports that mention "China" and "United Kingdom", discuss either "Textiles" or "Pharmaceuticals", but you don't want to see any report that mentions "Children" or "Juvenile" products.

On the form, you'll see three multi-line fill-in areas. In the first -- "All of these words" -- you specify the terms the reports have to have. Use a separate line for each word or phrase. In the second -- "And any of these words" -- you specify multiple terms that the reports have to have at least one of. And in the third -- "but none of these words" -- you specify what words you don't want. So you'd enter it something like this:

For people familiar with Boolean logic, you could have entered exactly the same request using the Standard Search form by saying: ("China" AND "United Kingdom") AND ("Textiles" OR "Pharmaceuticals") AND ! ("Children" OR "Juvenile")

In addition, like with Standard Search, Alternative Search allows you to restrict your search to specific databases.

One feature that Alternative Search supports but Standard Search does not is the ability to restrict the results to documents documents added in the last x-number of days.

Click to return to Standard Search or Alternative Search