Keywords

A keyword is a word or phrase that is used to define a search. For example, a keyword may be used for a Search or Advanced Search.

CivIS supports simple keywords (such as plain text) and complex keywords (plain text plus reserved words and marks). Using keywords effectively can make your searches yield better results.

Keyword format

Example keyword

Explanation

Single word

ballet

Use a single word to search for records contain that word.

This example will find records that include the word ballet.

Multiple words

school football

Use two or more words to search for records that contain all the words in any order.

This example will find records that include the word football and school, though the words may be anywhere in the record, may not be together, and may not be in the order you used.

This search is the same as using the AND Boolean Operator. To learn more see AND Boolean Operator.

? wildcard character

b?sh

or

b??sh

Use a question mark in place of a single letter. Use additional question marks for each variable letter.

The first example will find records including words such as bash and bush.

The second example will find records including words such as brash and blush.

* wildcard character

b*sh

or

foot*

Use an asterisk in place of one or more letters. This is very useful if you are unsure how to spell a word. There is some cross-over between this feature and the keyword stemming feature built into CivIS, which means that you may get the search results you need without using *. To learn more see Keyword Stemming.

The first example will find records including words such as bush, brush and banish.

The second example will find records including words such as football, footwear and footlights.

AND Boolean operator

school AND football

or

school +football

Use AND to search for records that contain both the words in any order.

This example will find records that include the word football and school, though the words may be anywhere in the record, my not be together, and may not be in the order given in the keyword.

For quickness you can also use + (plus) instead of AND. For example, school +football, but be sure to include a space before the + operator.

Notice that Boolean Operators are usually written in capital letters. This is not essential but it helps you understand the keyword meaning.

This search is the same as the multiple keywords search. To learn more see Multiple words.

OR Boolean operator

football OR tennis

Use OR to search for one or both words in each record.

This example will find records that contain either the word football or the word tennis, but will also find records containing football and tennis

NOT Boolean operator

female NOT male

or

female -male

Use NOT to search for records that contain the first word but not the second in each record.

This example will find records that contain the word female but only if the records do not also contain the word male. If a record contains both words then it will be ignored.

For quickness you can also use - (minus) instead of NOT. For example, female -male, but be sure to include a space before the - operator.

( ) braces

"fleas" AND (cat OR dog)

Use ( ) (braces) to concatenate (combine) two or more Boolean search keywords.

This example will find records that contain the word fleas, but only if the records also contain the word cat or dog. However, it will ignore records that contain the words, cat and dog.

" " quote marks

"mickey mouse"

or

"cats and dogs"

Use " " (quote marks) to force the words in your keyword to be kept together during the search, and to force Boolean operators to be treated as ordinary words.

The first example will find records that contain the name mickey mouse, but will ignore records that contain these words in any other arrangement.

The second example will find records that contain the phrase cats and dogs. The and is within the quote marks so it is not treated as a Boolean operator.

Required search

Example keyword

Explanation

Using AND, OR, or NOT as a keyword

cats OR dogs AND fleas NOT worms

As you have seen above, the words AND, OR and NOT have special meaning in a keyword. If you want to use these words without their special meaning, you need to enclose the keyword in quote marks.

This example will search for records containing the phrase cats and dogs, and which also include the word fleas, but will exclude the word worms.

Using + and - as a keyword

cats OR dogs + fleas -worms

This is a shorthand way to write the example above. Notice that there is no shorthand for OR.

Using * and ? in a keyword

a?t*

This example will search for records containing any phrase that begins with a, followed by one unknown character, then t, and ending with any number of other unknown characters, It will find phrases such as ants, artist, and attitude.

Required search

Example keyword

Explanation

cats and dogs

"cats and dogs"

AND is a Boolean Operator. To treat it as plain text you must enclose it in quotes.

The phase "cats and dogs" but not "rabbits"

"cats and dogs" NOT rabbits

This search is the same as the example above, but we are also using NOT to exclude the word rabbits from the search results.

Using * and ? in a keyword

"j**a?"

* is sometimes used to disguise offensive words, and ? is used to denote a question. However, these characters have special meanings in a keyword, so if you want to search for records containing these characters you must enclose the keyword in quote marks.

This example will search for records containing the word j**a?.