Gustar Search Help

• Performing a search
• Some simple search examples
• More advanced search examples
• Summary of search operators
• General Search Tips
• Capitalization (searches are case insensitive)
• What is a word, exactly?
• Presenting your search results
• About Gustar?

Performing a search

Some simple search examples

addressbook

Finds documents containing the word addressbook

fvwm button bars

Finds documents that contain all three words fvwm, button and bar. Words separated by space and punctuation (except the comma(,)) tell the search engine to perform an AND operation. That is, find all documents that contain fvwm AND button AND bar

fvwm , button , bar

Finds documents that contain at least one of the words fvwm, button, OR bar. The comma(,) tells the search engine to perform an OR operation. That is, find all documents that contain one of the words: fvwm, button OR bar. You do not need to put spaces around the comma. The search fvwm, button, bar or fvwm,button,bar return the same results as fvwm , button , bar.

More advanced search examples

tuple ! trees

Finds documents that contain the word tuple but NOT the word trees. The exclamation(!) character causes the search to exclude the words that follow the exclamation character.

ad.*

Finds documents that contain words like add, addressbook, addition, etc. The .* is a regular expression that causes the search to match any character or group of characters following the letters ad.

d.*e

Finds documents containing words that start with the letter d and end with the letter e. This query might return documents containing words like database, done, delete, etc.

.*

The .* character sequence by itself will return all documents on the search site.

ad.* ! addressbook

Find documents containing words that start with ad but exclude the word addressbook.

{eric herrin},{gil benson}

Find documents containing (1) the words eric AND herrin OR (2) the words gil AND benson. The brackets({}) group words when performing the query. NOTE: Using brackets with only one group is unnecessary and in fact returns no matches. For example, {tuple trees} would return no matches; instead enter just tuple trees without the brackets.

[a-m].*

Find documents containing words that start with one of the letters a through m. The dash(-) is a regular expression short-hand notation that matches any character between the characters on each side of the dash. For example, [a-c].* is equivalent to [a,b,c].* and would match words beginning with any of the letters: a, b or c.

Summary of search operators

AND

The blank space serves as an AND operator. For example, the search string John Eric would return documents that contain both the words john AND eric

OR

The comma(,) serves as an OR operator. For example, the search string John , Eric would return documents that contained either the string John OR Eric

!

The exclamation(!) serves as a NOT operator. For example, the search string John ! Eric would return documents that contain the word john but NOT the word eric

{}

Brackets surrounding a search expression, enable you to group complicated searches. For example, suppose you wanted to find documents that contained (1) the words John Wayne but not the words cowboy, OR (2) the words Clint Eastwood. To retrieve a list of these documents, you would would enter {{john wayne} ! cowboy} , {clint eastwood}}

.*

The .* combination performs a regular expression substition that matches one or more characters (any alphanumeric character excluding punctuation). For example, the search string b.*r would return documents containing butter, bar, banner, and so forth.

[]

The square brackets are used to denote a range search. For example, the search string [a-d].* would return documents containing words that start with a, b, c, or d.

General Search Tips

• Use more descriptive words instead of general ones. For example, a search for addressbook database will return more specific results than searching only for database.
• If you're getting matches on things you don't want to see, try using the NOT operator. For example, if you wanted to find documents relating to Qddb's trees and you were getting back topics on how to grow maple trees, you might try the search phrase trees ! {maple trees}. Or better yet, refine your search by adding the word tuple as in tuple trees.

Capitalization (searches are case insensitive)

What is a word, exactly?

About Gustar?

• build and maintain a Qddb database containing the contents of their web pages
• present a site search engine