Advanced Search

In This Section

Find results	all of the words (Search Tips)	Collections Descriptions
	with the exact phrase
	with at least one of the words
	without the words

More Search Options

File Format	return results of the file format
Occurrences	Return results where my terms occur

Search Tips

Below are a few tips to enhance your research. Need help or have a question? Contact the DTIC Reference Team at 1-800-CALL-DTIC (1-800-225-3842) or send an email to dtic.belvoir.us.mbx.reference@mail.mil.

Boolean Operators

Boolean Operators connect and define the relationship between search terms. Narrow or broaden your results by using the three Boolean Operators AND, OR and NOT.

the phrase radar calibration will bring up the same results as radar AND calibration
radar OR calibration will find all content containing either one or both of these terms
bridge NOT cable will find all content containing bridge except content that mentions cable

Boosting

Boosting is used to make one term more relevant than another. This is done by entering a term, phrases, or group followed by the boost operator ^, and then a value. The default boost value is 1, but can be any positive floating point number. Boosts between 0 and 1 will reduce the relevance.

quick^2 foxes will find all documents about foxes, especially quick foxes

Boosts can also be applied to phrases or to groups:

"jeep tank"^2
(light weapon)^4

Combining Truncation with Wildcards

Combining Truncation with Wildcards finds records that meet the conditions of the search terms that have a wildcard(s) or are truncated.

qu?ck bro* finds quick brown and quack brother

Nesting

Nesting is used to create complex queries by grouping AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR statements using parentheses.

bridge AND (suspension OR concrete) NOT cable will bring up results for bridge suspension, or concrete bridge, but not cable bridge

Proximity Operator

Proximity Operator finds records with terms in proximity to each other throughout a document whether they are in the same field or not when the operator ~ is used. A proximity search allows us to specify a maximum edit distance of words in a phrase:

radar calibration~5 this will change the proximity to five words

Truncation

Truncation is used to search a portion of a word by using an asterisk. The asterisk is used to represent the rest of the term, which will retrieve results that include words that begin with the entered letters.

terror* finds terrorism, terrorist, and terror

Wildcards

Wildcards are another way to return results that match a combination of characters. Replace a single character in a search term with a question mark.

defen?e finds defense and defence