Boolean Operators
A logical or Boolean operator is a term that tells the system how to use the specified words in a search query.
Let’s take a look at the different operators available on the platform.
Basic Boolean operators
Operator | Symbol | Description | Examples |
AND |
AND & | Useful for searching for terms that absolutely have to be in the results.
Interpreted as « both… and…».
All terms linked by AND are in the results, no matter where they are in the text. | Investment AND research
Investment & research
Finds documents containing both the term investment and the term research. |
OR |
OR | | Useful for allowing alternatives in results.
Interpreted as « … and/or… ».
At least one of the terms linked with OR is in the results. | Investment OR financing
Investment | financing
Finds documents containing either (or both) of the terms investment or financing. |
WITHOUT |
WITHOUT ! | Useful for excluding terms.
Interpreted as «… but not … ».
The desired term is in the results, but the excluded term is not. | Bank WITHOUT blood
Bank ! blood
Finds documents containing the term bank, but not the term blood. |
Exact same phrase |
" " | Useful for searching for a precise phrase.
Search is executed on the phrase, « as is ».
Truncation or declination cannot be applied; use OR to take variations into consideration. | "technological innovation"
Finds documents containing precisely the terms technological and innovation side by side, in this order: technological innovation.
Note: it won’t find technological innovations. |
Truncation |
* | Enables searching for terms beginning with the same string of characters.
Apply at the end of a string of characters containing a minimum of 4 characters.
Allows searching for everything that begins by... | manage*
Finds documents containing terms beginning by m-a-n-a-g-e, including: manage, manager, managers, management, etc. |
Declination |
+ | Enables searching for terms that are from the same family.
Apply at the end of a complete word.
Applied to a noun, it finds its plural and, in French, feminine forms.
Applied to a verb, it finds all its forms in all tenses. | salary+ sell+
The noun salary finds documents containing salary, salaries The verb sell finds documents containing sell, sells, selling, sold, etc. |
Parentheses | ( ) | Parentheses make it possible to isolate or group certain parts of a search query in order to impose an order in which the operators are processed.
Parentheses can be used manually at any time.
They ensure that operators are applied correctly. | (fusion* OR merge+) AND (banque OR bank OR institution) |
Advanced Boolean operators
Operator | Symbol | Description | Examples |
Adjacency |
$x | Useful for enhancing relevancy of results.
Acts as an « enriched » AND.
The $ symbol must be followed by a number. 0 is accepted.
Fixes the maximum number of words occurring between the two terms.
Search terms have to be in this order in the text. | public $1 advertisement
Finds documents in which the term public appears before advertisement and in which a maximum of 1 word separates them : public advertisement, public awareness advertisement, public information advertisement, public service advertisement etc. |
Proximity |
%x | Useful for enhancing relevancy of results.
Acts as an « enriched » AND.
The % symbol must be followed by a number. 0 is accepted.
Determines the maximum number of words occurring between two terms.
Search terms have to be in the text, regardless of their order of appearance. |
investments %4 textile
Finds documents in which investments and textile, can appear in any order and where they are separated by a maximum of 4 words: investments in textile manufacturing, textile manufacturing investments, etc. |
Paragraph |
@ | Useful for enhancing relevancy of results.
Acts as an « enriched » AND.
Must be used in between two terms.
Search terms have to appear in the same paragraph. | exports @ aerospace
Finds documents containing both exports and aerospace in the same paragraph. |
Frequency |
>x | Useful for enhancing relevancy of results.
The > symbol must be followed by a number.
Fixes the minimum number of times a term should appear in text. | shareholders >2
Finds documents in which the term shareholders appears more than two times, i.e. 3 or more occurrences. |
Search keys
By default, the system searches for the keywords in the entire document. The search keys allow you to perform more accurate searches. You can search for keywords in certain parts of the document only, such as the title or lead, or according to the document's characteristics, such as the author’s name or the length of the text.
Let’s take a look at the different search keys available on the platform.
Keys | Descriptions |
AUT_BY | Search for documents written by a specified author. You can also search for a news agency's name or the anchor's name for broadcast transcripts.
For example, aut_by=Reuters returns documents from the Reuters agency. |
CHR_COL | Search for documents in a column the name of which contains the specified word(s).
For example, CHR_COL=gastronomy allows you to find news articles published in any column containing the word gastronomy. |
DOS_SER | Search for documents published or broadcast in a "special news folder"; these news folders are often related to special events, such as the elections, the Olympics or the war in the Middle East.
For example, DOS_SER=Olympics allows you to find documents published in any news folder that contains Olympics in its title |
EDITION | Search for documents published in the given edition of a newspaper. The edition is identified by a number.
For example, EDITION=1 allows you to find documents in the first edition of various information sources.
Note: The edition classification system varies according to the editors/publishers. |
ILL | Search among captions and formats of attached documents, and names of photographers/authors of the illustrations related to the document.
For example, ILL=Bush allows you to find the documents with illustrations that contain Bush in the caption, while ILL=gif allows you to find documents with gif-format images. |
LEAD | Search in the document lead.
The lead includes the title, the kicker and subhead of a document, the title or the name of a column, as well as the beginning of a document. The beginning of the document starts at the first line and goes to the end of the second paragraph longer than 15 words. If the first 4 paragraphs are shorter than 15 words, the lead ends at the end of the 4th paragraph.
For example, LEAD=Canada allows you to find documents with Canada in the lead. |
LG | Search for documents of the given length. The possible values are: brief: less than 100 words short: from 100 to 299 words medium: from 300 to 700 words long: more than 700 words.
For example, LG=brief allows you to find documents of less than 100 words. |
PAGE | Search among documents published on a specific page. Page numbering varies from one information source to another (1, 2, 3...; A1, A2, A3...; A01, A02, A03...).
For example, PAGE=B01 allows you to find documents published on page B01 of any information source using such a page-numbering system.
Note: Search by page number is not available for all news article sources. |
SECT | Search within a section. A section is defined as a newspaper section or heading. Section names vary from one source to another.
For example, SECT=news allows you to find documents published in the news section or column of an information source having such a section.
This search key is also used to limit the search to a regional edition of major French dailies such as Ouest-France.
Attention: Search by section is not available in all sources. If you launch a search using this key in sources where it is not available, you will get no results. |
SUJ_KW_T | Search documents dealing with a specific topic, a person, business or geographical location.
For example, SUJ_KW_T=Australia allows you to find documents about Australia. |
LANG= | Search for articles written in a specific language.
For example, LANG=fra allows you to retrieve articles written only in French.
Here is the list of codes to use: Language / Code French / fra English / eng Spanish / es Finnish / fi German / de Portuguese / pt Norwegian / no Italian / it Dutch / nl Danish / da Swedish / sv Icelandic / is Estonian / et Latvian / lv Lithuanian / lt |
Note: The Europresse search engine is not case-sensitive: capital letters and accents are not taken into account.