Search syntax

Last published : Oct 28, 2026
Search syntax defines how search terms, operators, and special characters must be entered to produce the required search results. Arctera Personal Archive supports phrase, Boolean operator, wildcard, and proximity search syntax in Advanced Search and Query Search.
Note: Search terms are not case-sensitive. Capitalizing a search term does not affect the search results.
Phrase search syntax:
Phrase search syntax lets you find an exact sequence of one or more words in archived content. Use a phrase search when the order and grouping of the words are important, such as when searching for a product name, project name, or commonly used expression.
To perform a phrase search, enclose the complete phrase in double quotation marks. Phrase searches are supported in Query Search and Advanced Search.
For example:
"cloud computing"
This search returns archived messages that contain the exact phrase cloud computing. It does not return messages in which cloud and computing occur separately or in a different order.
Phrase search syntax helps narrow the search results to items that contain the specified words together in the required sequence.
Boolean operator search syntax:
Boolean operator search syntax lets you combine search terms or exclude specific terms from the search results. Use a Boolean operator search when you want to find items that contain multiple terms, either of two terms, or one term without another term.
Boolean operator searches are supported in Query Search and Advanced Search. The supported Boolean operators are AND, OR, and NOT.
Note: Boolean operators are supported in English only unless your organization subscribes to enhanced Japanese search.
Using the AND operator:
Use the AND operator between two search terms to find items that contain both terms.
For example:
cloud AND computing
This search returns archived messages that contain both cloud and computing.
Arctera Personal Archive treats a space between two search terms as the AND operator. Therefore, the following searches produce the same results:
cloud computing
cloud AND computing
Using the OR operator:
Use the OR operator between two search terms to find items that contain either term or both terms.
For example:
cloud OR computing
This search returns archived messages that contain cloud, computing, or both terms.
Using the NOT operator:
Use the NOT operator between two search terms to include the first term and exclude the second term.
For example:
cloud NOT computing
This search returns archived messages 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 use 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
A search can contain a maximum of 249 Boolean operators.
Grouping search terms:
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
Combining Boolean operators with phrase searches:
You can use Boolean operators 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
Using the 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 does not have a 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 next to each other, and the search is invalid.
Boolean operator search syntax helps you refine search results by specifying which terms must be included, which terms can be included, and which terms must be excluded.
Wildcard search syntax:
Wildcard search syntax lets you search for variations of a term by replacing one or more characters at the end of the term with a wildcard character. Use a wildcard search when you know the beginning of a term but its ending can vary.
Wildcard searches are supported in Query Search and Advanced Search. Arctera Personal Archive supports the following wildcard characters:
  • A question mark (?) represents one unspecified character.
  • An asterisk (*) represents one or more unspecified characters.
Using a single-character wildcard:
Place a question mark (?) at the end of a search term to represent one unspecified character.
For example:
appl?
This search can return archived messages containing terms such as apple or apply.
Using a multiple-character wildcard:
Place an asterisk (*) at the end of a search term to represent one or more unspecified characters.
For example:
comp*
This search can return archived messages containing terms such as computing, computer, or company.
The following conditions apply when using wildcard search syntax:
  • Place the wildcard character at the end of the search term.
  • Enter at least three characters before the wildcard character.
  • In phrase searches, question marks (?) and asterisks (*) are treated as special characters rather than wildcard characters.
Wildcard search syntax helps you find related terms that share the same beginning but have different endings.
Proximity search syntax:
Proximity search syntax lets you find two words that occur within a specified distance of each other. Use a proximity search when the words do not need to appear next to each other but must occur within a defined number of words.
Proximity searches are supported in Query Search and Advanced Search. Search terms are not case-sensitive; therefore, capitalization does not affect the search results.
To perform a proximity search, enclose the two words in double quotation marks. After the closing quotation mark, enter a tilde (~) followed by a numeric value. The numeric value specifies the maximum number of words that can occur between the words enclosed in quotation marks.
For example:
"cloud computing"~5
This search returns archived messages in which cloud and computing occur within five words of each other.
The following conditions apply when using proximity search syntax:
  • The proximity word count cannot exceed 49 words.
  • Wildcard characters cannot be used in a proximity search.
  • Proximity search results can contain stop words, but stop words are excluded from the proximity word count.
  • Terms returned by a proximity search are not highlighted.
Proximity search syntax helps you find related words that occur near each other even when other words appear between them.
Related information
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