Requiring or Excluding Terms
Ultraseek has a simple query syntax which gives you the pinpoint search power of Boolean logic, without having to remember complex queries. The table below shows the Ultraseek operators that correspond to Boolean operators:
| Ultraseek Search Operator | Boolean Equivalent |
|---|---|
| default operator: you need not use any special symbols |
OR |
| + | AND |
| - | NOT |
| phrase operator: enclose the phrase with double quotation marks |
ADJ |
Boolean queries use the logical operators AND, OR, NOT and ADJ (adjacent). Suppose you wanted to find results for President Franklin D. Roosevelt but not President Theodore Roosevelt. This query can be specified in Boolean logic as:
(President ADJ Roosevelt) AND (FDR OR (Franklin D. ADJ Roosevelt)) AND NOT (Theodore OR Teddy)
Using Ultraseek operators, the complex query above may be typed into the search box as:
+”President Roosevelt” FDR “Franklin D.” –Theodore, -Teddy
This query specifies that:
- All returned documents must contain the phrase "President Roosevelt".
- Documents containing one or more of the terms "President Roosevelt", FDR, or "Franklin D." will be ranked at the top (the more terms matched, the higher the ranking).
- None of the documents returned will contain either Theodore or Teddy.
Statistical Weighting and Ultraseek Searches
A traditional Boolean search returns an unsorted list of all items that match the search condition. Ultraseek goes considerably beyond this by using advanced statistical search technology to return the results sorted with the "best" matches listed at the top. Unlike plain Boolean searches, Ultraseek automatically weights your query terms based on their statistical uniqueness. Common terms, such as "shall," get a much lower weighting than less frequently occurring terms, such as the phrase "golf courses."
Ultraseek's advanced statistical weighting allows you to just type in relevant words and phrases, and the system will provide the answer to your query in the top few documents! Since there are cases in which it is convenient to narrow a query using Boolean operators, Ultraseek Server allows you to use the + and - Boolean operators. With Ultraseek, you get the accurate ranking of statistical searching combined with the information filtering of Boolean searching.
