Q. How do I build advanced searches in PRISM?

Complex queries can be carried out with the syntax provided by Solr text search engine in the main search box on the PRISM home page.

Advanced Search Tips:

Phrase searching

Double quotes must surround phrases or words within the phrase will be treated as separate search terms in full text. This means the query below would return results from full text, unless the search was set in a specific field, such as the title or abstract.

Example: if you wanted to search for the phrase decision tree then it should appear as follows.

"decision tree"

Search within a specific field

You can search within a specific field by designating the Dublin core metadata field you would like to search, followed by a semi-colon and then the search string.

Example: To search for the phrase decision tree in the title field you would input:

title:"decision tree"

Search for a specific author:

To search for a name in the author field, input:

Example: author:smith OR author:"smith, john" OR author:"smith, john s"

Search for a specific advisor:

To search for a name in the advisor field, input:

Example: dc.contributor.advisor:smith

Search for a specific department:

To search for a name in the department field, input:

Example: thesis.degree.discipline:"Kinesiology"

Using a wildcard

A single character wildcard is denoted by ? while a multiple character wildcard is denoted by *. (Don't use this feature with double quotes, or it will treat your wildcard search as an exact phrase, that is, as a word containing ?  or *. 

Example: A single character wildcard search to retrieve woman, women in full text:

wom?n

Example: A multiple character wildcard search, to retrieve secure, security in the title field:

title:secur*

Proximity search

A proximity search allows terms to be searched for on the condition that each word specified is within a certain number of words away from the other(s). A proximity search is denoted with a ~ at the end of a set of words in double quotes, and a value that indicates the maximum numbers of words that separate the terms.

Example: To search for "decision" and "tree" within the same sentence you could input:

"tree decision"~10

Boolean operators

Boolean operators can add logical structures to searches. Available operators include AND, +, OR, NOT, and -

Operators must be in upper case: AND, NOT, OR

Example:

decision AND tree ...will return documents that contain both terms in full text.

decision +tree ...will return documents that contain both decision and tree in full text.

decision OR tree ...will return documents that contain decision or tree, in full text

decision NOT tree ...will return documents that contain decision but not tree.

decision -tree ...will also return documents that contain decision but not tree.

title:decision AND title:tree ...will return documents that contain decision and tree, with both terms in the title field.

Grouping

Logical structures can be grouped together by using parentheses.

Example:

"decision tree" AND ("University of Calgary" OR UCalgary)

Date ranges

Find a span of documents published during a period of time.  DateIssued is the publish date.

Example:

dateIssued:[1986 TO 1990]