Simple queries allow you to use comma-delimited strings and/or wildcard characters. When using a comma in a simple query expression, it is treated like a logical OR (i.e., court,clerk,opinion would translate to court or clerk or opinion). If you omit the commas, the query is then treated as a phrase. By default, a simple query searches for words, not literal strings. Case is ignored in searches.
For example, searching for local AND government will return documents containing both the word "local" and the word "government." Searching for local "and" government will only return documents with the phrase, "local and government." Searching for government AND (county OR local) would return documents containing the words "government" and "county" along with those containing "government" and "local." To exclude a term, searching for government AND local NOT county would return documents containing "government" and "local," but not the word "county."
A simple query employs the STEM operator and the MANY modifier. STEM searches for words derived from those entered in the query experssion, so that entering "count" will return documents containing "count," "county," "counting," etc. The MANY modifier forces the documents returned in the search to be presented in a list based on a relevancy score.
The more frequent the occurrence of a word in a document, the higher its score. As a result, the documents are ranked according to word density (the word you specified), as well as words that stem from the queried word. (As stated above, for example, "county," "country," and "counting" are stemmed variations of the word "count." Additionally, you can enter the word "count" without a wildcard character to achieve these results.)
The following chart illustrates wildcard characters which may be used in queries.
| Wildcard | Description |
|---|---|
| ? | Question. Indicates any single alphanumeric character. |
| * | Asterisk. Specifies zero or more alphanumeric characters. Avoid using an asterisk as the first character in a search string; also, the asterisk is ignored in a set [] or alternative pattern {}. |
| [] | Square Brackets. Specifies one of any character in a set, such as "j[ia]m" which locates "jim" and "jam." Square brackets indicate an implied OR. |
| {} | Curly Braces. Specifies one of each pattern separated by a comma, as in "count{s, ry, y}" which locates "counts," "country," and "county." Curly braces indicate an implied AND. |
| ^ | Caret. Specifies one of any character not in the set as in "j[^a]m" which locates "jim" but not "jam." |
| - | Hyphen. Specifies a range of characters in a set. For example, "g[a-l]t" locates every word in a document beginning with "g," ending with "t," and containing any letters from "a" to "l." |