We use an open source search tool that supports several standard search functions: Stemming, Boolean operators, and Wildcards .
Stemming
Stemming enables a search engine to compare the roots of search terms to community content. For example, if a user enters “speakers” as the query, the search engine reduces the word to its root “speak” and returns all content containing the root such as “speaking”, “speaker”, and “speaks”.
Boolean operators are used in keyword searches to combine or exclude search terms. We support these basic Boolean operators:
- The OR operator is used by default, meaning that if there is no Boolean operator, the OR operator is used. To search for documents that contain either “bose reviews” or “speaker reviews” use the query bose reviews speaker reviews or bose reviews OR speaker review. You can use the symbol || in place of OR.
- The AND operator matches documents where both terms exist in the text of a single document. The symbol && can be used in place of the word AND.
To search for documents containing “car speakers” and “bose” use the query car speakers AND bose.
- The + operator requires the term you enter after the + symbol to exist somewhere in the field of a single document. To search for documents that must contain “bose” and may contain “car” use the query +bose car.
- The NOT operator excludes documents that contain the term after NOT. The symbol ! can be used in place of the word NOT. To search for documents that contain “headphones” but not “bose” use the query headphones NOT bose. The NOT operator can only be used with a single term. For example, the term bose speakers will return no results.
- The - operator excludes documents that contain the term after the – symbol. To search for documents that contain “car speakers” but not ”bose” use the query car speakers -bose.
Wildcard search
Wildcard searches are used as a placeholder for any sequence of characters or words. You can use single character or multiple character wildcard searches within single terms (not within phrase queries).
- To perform a single character wildcard search use the ? symbol.For example, to search for text or test you can use the search te?t.
- To perform a multiple character wildcard search use the * symbol. For example, to search for test, tests or tester you can use the search test*.