Defining search terms

The AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR operators enable you to precisely define your search by creating a relationship between search terms. The following table shows how you can use each of these operators. If no operator is specified, AND is used. For example, the query "server cgi security" is equivalent to "server AND cgi AND security".

Search operators
Search for Example Results
Both terms in the same topic http AND apache Topics containing both the words "http" and "apache".
Either term in a topic ming OR swflib Topics containing either the word "ming" or the word "swflib" or both.
The first term without the second term xml NOT expat Topics containing the word "xml" but not the word "expat".
Both terms in the same topic, close together database NEAR security Topics containing the word "database" within eight words of the word "security".

Note:

The |, &, and ! characters can also be used in place of OR AND and NOT respectively. This may not work if you use a very old version of the viewer.