Searching for an Exact Phrase

The exact phrase operator--the single quotation mark--combines characteristics of the adjacency and exact match operators. By bordering a sequence of query terms with this operator you can search for records that contain exact matches of that phrase.

Syntax:

'word1 word2 word3'

This syntax is equivalent to the following:

word1# ADJ word2# ADJ word3#

CAUTION: Do not use the exact phrase operator with a query term that includes wildcard operators; this causes the wildcards to be interpreted literally, rather than as variables.

Example:

'Project Blue Book'
'Council on Foreign Relations'

The first query will retrieve records that contain the phrase Project Blue Book.

The second query will retrieve records that contain the phrase Council on Foreign Relations. However, because on is a stopword, occurrences in records of the phrase Council on Foreign Relations are read by PLWeb Turbo as Council Foreign Relations, which satisfies the conditions of the query.

Note: If you include in the enclosed phrase any operator that is not defined as a stopword, it will be interpreted as a query term, not as an operator.

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