Search Function Options

In addition to allowing you to search on a specific word, Observer allows you to search using phrases, wildcards, and Boolean operators. Consult the table below for details.

Query

Example

Notes

single term

document

Searches for documents that contain "document" term in the default field

phrase

"important document"

Searches for documents that contain the phrase "important document" in the default field.

wildcard search

doc?ment

Single-character wildcard search. It will match "document" and "dociment" but not "docooment".

document*

Multi-character wildcard search. It will match "document" and "documentation".

fuzzy search

document~

Search based on similar spelling.

document~0.9

Search based on similar spelling. 0.9 is the required similarity (default: 0.5)

proximity search

"important document"~5

Find words of a phrase that are not next to each other. Maximum distance in this example is 5 words.

relevance

important^4 document

Set boost factor of the term "important" to 4. Default boost factor is 1.

"important document"^4 "search engine"

You can set boost factor for phrases too.

OR operator

important document

"OR" is the default operator.

important OR document

The default field must contain either "important" or "document".

AND operator

important AND document

The default field must contain both words.

+ operator

important +document

The default field must contain "document" and may contain "important".

NOT/- operator

-important document

The default field must contain "document" but not "important".

grouping

(important OR office) AND document

Use parentheses for expression grouping.