Boolean operators
Boolean operators let you combine or exclude search terms to refine the results returned by Quick Search and Advanced Search. Arctera Personal Archive supports the
AND, OR, and NOT operators.
Note: Boolean operators are supported in English only unless your organization subscribes to enhanced Japanese search.
AND operator:
Use the
AND operator between two search terms to return items that contain both terms.
For example:
cloud AND computing
This search returns items that contain both cloud and computing.
Arctera Personal Archive treats a space between two search terms as the
AND operator. The following searches produce the same results:
cloud computing
cloud AND computing
OR operator:
Use the
OR operator between two search terms to return items that contain either term or both terms.
For example:
cloud OR computing
This search returns items that contain cloud, computing, or both.
NOT operator:
Use the
NOT operator between two search terms to return items that contain the first term but not the second term.
For example:
cloud NOT computing
This search returns items that contain cloud but do not contain computing.
You can also begin a search with the
NOT operator.
For example:
NOT "cloud computing"
This search attempts to return every item that does not contain the phrase cloud computing.
Note: A search that begins with the
NOT operator might not complete because it can return a large number of matching items, particularly when searching a large archive.
Using multiple Boolean operators:
You can combine multiple Boolean operators to create more complex searches.
For example:
cloud AND computing OR public
In this expression,
cloud AND computing is processed as one term. The search returns the following items:
-
Items that contain both cloud and computing
-
Items that contain cloud, computing, and public
-
Items that contain public
You can also use parentheses to group terms for Boolean processing.
For example:
(cloud (computing OR public)) NOT software
The space between
cloud and (computing OR public) is treated as the AND operator. The search returns the following items:
-
Items that contain both cloud and computing but do not contain software
-
Items that contain both cloud and public but do not contain software
A search can contain a maximum of 249 Boolean operators.
Using Boolean operators with phrase searches:
Boolean operators can be used with phrases enclosed in double quotation marks.
For example:
"cloud computing" OR "public cloud" NOT software
This search returns the following items:
-
Items that contain the phrase cloud computing but do not contain software
-
Items that contain the phrase public cloud but do not contain software
-
Items that contain both phrases but do not contain software
Boolean operators and special characters:
Do not use a special character as a search term in a Boolean expression. Arctera Personal Archive removes special characters while processing a search, which can leave an incomplete or invalid Boolean expression.
For example:
cloud OR +
The application removes the plus sign (
+). As a result, the OR operator has no second search term, and the search is invalid.
Consider the following example:
cloud AND – AND computing
The application removes the special character (
–). As a result, two AND operators remain adjacent to each other, and the search is invalid.
Understanding Boolean operators helps you construct precise searches that return items containing the required terms.