Search strings and connectors

Searching the Net

One of the most widely used methods of collecting data is the Internet or the Net (as it is often referred to). You can search for data and specific information on the Internet by using a search engine. This requires using keywords and phrases.

Let’s look at some of the ways you can improve the way you collect data from the Net.

Refining the search

By accessing a search engine such as Google or Yahoo!, you can search all sites listed for specific information. The results are listed and ranked by relevance to your search request. This allows you to choose which site/s you want to browse.

Sometimes they are listed in categories. If the search allows text searching, you will improve the success of your search by using keywords within a category.

Category

You may wish to search for data on a specific area of interest or a topic you are studying, such as travel. Once you have decided that this is the category, you can now start using keywords in this category, e.g. Travel Asia and travel goods.

Keywords

Most keyword search engines have advanced search capabilities. The first of these we will look at is the phrase. The phrase refers to a set of words in quotation marks such as ‘travel to the mountains’.

Collecting data

Examples

Example 1: Phrase or expressed concept

Here are some examples of phrases you might need to use such as:

• city bus timetable
• workplace health and safety
• ergonomic furniture

Example 2: Different order phrase

If you search for the phrase ‘workplace health and safety’, but in the database record the phrase ‘workplace safety and health’ is used, that record will not appear in your search results.

Example 3: Stop words

a	be	into	on	the	this
an	but	is	or	their	to
and	by	it	s	then	was
are	for	no	such	there	with
as	if	not	t	these
at	in	of	that	they

Example 4: Keywords

If you were researching ‘the workplace health and safety aspects of ergonomic furniture,’ your keyword lists might look like this:

Concept 1	Concept 2	Concept 3
work	WHS	ergonomic
workplace	OHS	furniture
employ	policies	chair
employment	legislation	desk
occupation	hazards	design
industry	risks
job	unsafe

Note: If you do not recognise any of these words, find their meanings in your dictionary.

Search using phrases

This is requesting that your words appear immediately adjacent to one another, in the exact order that you type them. Phrase searching is especially useful when you are looking for information about an expressed concept, statement or a phrase of two or more words. For example ‘Man lands on the moon’.

Be aware that if your search terms appear in the database record, but are in a different order, or are separated by other words, then those records will not be retrieved as part of your search results.

Be selective when you choose to search for phrases, and remember that relevant information may be excluded from your search results.

Sometimes typing the phrase itself is sufficient; other times, particularly when you are searching for specific items, you may need to enclose your phrase in quotation marks. For example “workplace health and safety”

Searching for exact phrases can return large, and often inaccurate, variances in found results. If you choose to search for exact phrases it is far more practical with Boolean operators.

Boolean search

Boolean searches require a value to be entered. This defines the relationship between words such as AND, OR and NOT.

In your search engine type in the following words in each of the searches:

• ‘song AND dance’. The search engine will look for pages that have both of these words.
• ‘song OR dance’. This time the search engine will fi nd pages that have either or both words.
• ‘song AND NOT dance’ fi nds only pages with the word ‘song’ that DO NOT contain the word ‘dance’.

In most simple searches you can define the Boolean requirements by the use of the ‘+’ and ‘-’ symbols, where ‘+’ means AND, ‘-’ means NOT. There is no symbol for OR so this would still need to be written as a word.

Example

When searching, Boolean operators function by connecting keywords, main ideas and /or concepts of a topic together to form a logical statement.

Connectors	Use it to	What it does	Example
AND or ‘+’	Narrow your search	All terms must appear in results	Health AND safety or ergonomics AND chair
OR	Broaden your search or combine synonyms	Either word or term may appear in the results	Health OR safety
NOT or ‘-‘	Narrow your search and exclude a specific word or term	Exclude a specific word or term	Health NOT image
() parenthesis	Create complex search	Link multiple search concepts and terms that belong together	(body image OR self esteem) AND(eating disorders NOT obesity)
“   “  (quotations)	Exact phrase	Search will contain the exact phrase, order of words and spelling	“funding deficiency” will return only results with funding deficiency together
?   (question mark)	Single letter replacement	Will replace each letter where a ? occurs with all available word combinations	S????holder (retrieves stockholder and shareholder)
#   (hash)	Disabling	Will disable the retrieval of plural and equivalencies of the word that follows the #	#damage (retrieves only damage, not damages)
-    (hyphen)	Compound words	Using a – in a word will identify that a compound word is part of the results needed	e-mail (retrieves e-mail, e mail, email)
*   (asrterik)	Contain variations of work	Use in place of the ending to designate that any variation of the word is wanted	Invit* (retrieves results with invite, invitation, invites…)