Advanced / Boolean Syntax

Virtual Search Engines support all popular range of Boolean syntax. Below are the details of currently supported options. You can also use this information to make a Search-Help page for your search engine.

NOTE, that Advanced/Boolean syntax will override usual 'all', 'any', 'phrase' settings passed through Form-Input Name match.

A) Phrase Search ("")
Double-Quoted queries/Keywords will be treated as a PHRASE.
Example: "computer software"
will always try to match the Exact query/text as entered.

B) AND Search ( + )
Putting a '+' (plus sign) will make sure that this word MUST be matched.
Example: +computer +software
will always try to make sure that both words are matched.

C) NOT/Exclude Search ( - )
Putting a '-' (minus sign) will make sure that this word must NOT be matched.
Example: +computer -software
will always try to fetch documents that contain the word 'computer' BUT does NOT contain the word 'software'.

D) OR Search
Putting 'OR' between words will force an 'ANY WORD' matching.
Example: computer OR software
will find documents that contain at least any of these words.

E) AND Search ( AND )
AND Search can also be invoked using 'AND'. This is same as using '+'.
Example: computer AND software
will try to fetch documents containing both the words 'computer' and 'software'.

F) NOT/Exclude Search ( NOT )
This is same as using '-'.
Example: computer NOT software
will try to fetch documents containing the word 'computer' BUT not 'software'.

IMPORTANT: Boolean syntax 'AND', 'OR' and 'NOT' are case insensitive and CAN BE USED AS UPPER-CASE OR LOWER-CASE LETTERS. This means 'AND' and 'and' are the same Boolean connector. The same way 'OR' and 'or' are the same connectors.