Examples of Operator Use

Note

Indexing Service is no longer supported as of Windows XP and is unavailable for use as of Windows 8. Instead, use Windows Search for client side search and Microsoft Search Server Express for server side search.

 

The following examples illustrate the use of the Boolean and proximity operators.

To Search For Example Results
Both terms in the same document.
red AND dog
—Or—
red & dog
Documents with both the words red and dog.
Either term in a document.
red OR dog
—Or—
red | dog
Documents with either of the words red or dog.
The first term without the second term.
red AND NOT dog
—Or—
red & ! dog
Documents with the word red but not dog.
Several terms in the same document, close together.
red {NEAR dist = 50, unit = word} dog {NEAR dist = 50, unit = word} cat
—Or—
red NEAR dog NEAR cat
—Or—
(red ~ dog) ~ cat
Documents with the word red near the word dog and that combination near the word cat.
Several terms in the same document, but not others close together.
(red OR dog) AND NOT (black {NEAR dist = 50, unit = word} cat)
—Or—
(red OR dog) AND NOT (black NEAR cat)
—Or—
(red | dog) &! (black ~ cat)
Documents with the word red or the word dog, but not the word black near the word cat.
Documents not matching a value-type property.
NOT @size = 100
—Or—
! @size = 100
Documents that are not 100 bytes.