Region 9: The Pacific Southwest

Searching for Words and Phrases
Using Query Language
Proximity Search Methods
Excluding Information

Your search can include words and phrases separated by a comma. By default, words and phrases in the query are stemmed, meaning the search is broadened to include the stemmed variations of these words.

The query below will search for the phrase "press releases" and stemmed variations of the word "wetlands":

press releases, wetlands

You may want to search for the word "wetlands" and not the word along with all of its stemmed variations. To do this, you just delimit the search term in double-quotation marks. For example, the following query will search for the word "Region 9" and the word "wetlands":

"Region 9", "wetlands"

Note that searches are not case-sensitive by default. This means you can use "Region 9" or "region 9" in the above examples and get the same search results.

Using Query Language

You can use operators and modifiers to apply logic to your query and pinpoint the exact information you are interested in. Popular operators are: AND, OR, and NEAR. A modifier can be used with an operator to further define your question for the search engine. Frequently-used modifiers are: MANY and NOT. By default, the words "and," "or," and "not" are interpreted as query language; all other query language elements, such as the NEAR operator, are interpreted as words unless surrounded by angle brackets. Sample query expressions using query language are below.

The AND operator selects documents that contain all of the search elements you specify. To find documents that contain both "Region 9" and at least one stemmed variation of the word "wetlands" you can use the following query:

"Region 9" and wetlands

The OR operator selects documents that show evidence of at least one of the search elements. To find documents that contain either "Region 9" or at least one stemmed variation of the word "wetlands" you can use the following query:

"Region 9" or wetlands

Proximity Search Methods

There are several search methods for doing proximity searches. A proximity search looks for documents containing search terms within close proximity of each other. The following operators enable proximity search methods: NEAR, PHRASE, SENTENCE, PARAGRAPH.

The NEAR operator selects documents containing specified search terms within close proximity to each other. Document scores are calculated based on the relative number of words between search terms; the closer the search terms, the higher the score. To find documents that contain the word "Region 9" and stemmed variations of the word "wetlands" within close proximity to each other, you can use this query:

"Region 9"<NEAR>welands

The SENTENCE and PARAGRAPH operators are used to specify a search within a sentence or paragraph. The syntax for using these operators is similar. To find documents that contain the word "Region 9" and stemmed variations of the word "wetlands" within the same paragraph, you can use this query:

"Region 9"<PARAGRAPH>wetlands

Excluding Information

Want to exclude something from a search? That's what the NOT modifier does. For example, to find documents containing stemmed variations of the words "ORD" and "pesticide" in close proximity to each other, but not stemmed variations of the word "water", you enter this query:

ORD<NEAR>pesticide<AND> <NOT>water