User Guide

288 Chapter 15 Indexing and Searching Data
When you use prefix notation, the expression specifies precedence explicitly. The
following example means: Look for documents that contain b and c first, then
documents that contain a:
OR (a, AND (b,c))
When you use infix notation, precedence is implicit in the expression. For example,
the AND operator takes precedence over the OR operator.
Commas in expressions
If an expression includes two or more search terms within parentheses, a comma is
required as a separator between the elements. The following example means: Look
for documents that contain any combination of a and b together.
<OR> (a, b)
Note that in this example, angle brackets are used with the OR operator.
Delimiters in expressions
You use angle brackets (< >), double quotation marks ("), and backslashes (\) to
delimit various elements in a query expression, as described in the following table:
Searching with wildcards
The following table shows the wildcard characters that you can use to search Verity
collections:
Angle brackets Left and right angle brackets are reserved for designating
operators and modifiers. They are optional for the AND, OR, and
NOT operators, but required for all other operators.
Double quotation
marks
You use double quotation marks in expressions to search for a
word that is otherwise reserved as an operator, such as AND, OR,
and NOT.
Backslashes To include a backslash in a search expression, insert two
backslashes for each backslash character you want included in the
search; for example, C:\\CFUSION\\BIN.
Wildcard Description
? Question. Matches any single alphanumeric character.
* Asterisk. Matches zero or more alphanumeric characters. Avoid using
the asterisk as the first character in a search string. Asterisk is ignored
in a set, ([]) or an alternative pattern ({}).
[ ] Square brackets. Matches any one the characters in the brackets, as in
“sl[iau]m” which locates “slim,” “slam,” and “slum.” Square brackets
indicate an implied OR.