Microsoft Index Server: Query Language

Query Language

You can search for any word or phrase on a Web site by typing the word or phrase into a query form and clicking the button to execute the query (for example, the Execute Query button on the sample query form). This section covers the following topics:

Boolean and Proximity Operators: Shows how to make more precise queries by inserting Boolean and proximity operators.
Wildcards: Helps you find pages containing words similar to a given word.
Free-Text Queries: Describes how to formulate a query based on the meaning of a phrase rather than the exact wording.
Vector Space Queries: Explains how to get query results that match a list of words and phrases.
Property Names: Lists and describes property names always available for queries.
Regular expressions: Lists and describes expressions available for queries.
Query Examples: Gives examples of various queries.
Searches produce a list of files that contain the word or phrase no matter where they appear in the text. This list gives the rules for formulating queries:

Consecutive words are treated as a phrase; they must appear in the same order within a matching document.
Queries are case-insensitive, so you can type your query in uppercase or lowercase.
You can search for any word except for those in the exception list (for English, this includes a, an, and, as, and other common words), which are ignored during a search.
Words in the exception list are treated as placeholders in phrase and proximity queries. For example, if you searched for “Word for Windows”, the results could give you “Word for Windows” and “Word and Windows”, because for is a noise word and appears in the exception list.
Punctuation marks such as the period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), and comma (,) are ignored during a search.
To use specially treated characters such as &, |, ^, #, @, $, (, ), in a query, enclose your query in quotation marks (“).
To search for a word or phrase containing quotation marks, enclose the entire phrase in quotation marks and then double the quotation marks around the word or words you want to surround with quotes. For example, “World-Wide Web or ““Web””” searches for World-Wide Web or “Web”.
You can insert Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT) and the proximity operator (NEAR) to specify additional search information.
The wildcard character (*) can match words with a given prefix. The query esc* matches the terms “ESC,” “escape,” and so on.
Free-text queries can be specified without regard to query syntax.
Vector space queries can be specified.

Boolean and Proximity Operators

Boolean and proximity operators can create a more precise query.

To Search For	Example	Results
Both terms in the same page	delta and dentist —Or— delta & dentist	Pages with both the words “access” and “basic”
Either term in a page	delta or pmi	Pages with the words “cgi” or “isapi”
Both terms in the same page, close together	eligible near benefits	Pages with the word “excel” near the word “project”

Hints:

You can add parentheses to nest expressions within a query. The expressions in parentheses are evaluated before the rest of the query.
Use double quotes (“) to indicate that a Boolean or NEAR operator keyword should be ignored in your query. For example, “Abbott and Costello” will match pages with the phrase, not pages that match the Boolean expression. In addition to being an operator, the word and is a noise word in English.
The NEAR operator is similar to the AND operator in that NEAR returns a match if both words being searched for are in the same page. However, the NEAR operator differs from AND because the rank assigned by NEAR depends on the proximity of words. That is, the rank of a page with the searched-for words closer together is greater than or equal to the rank of a page where the words are farther apart. If the searched-for words are more than 50 words apart, they are not considered near enough, and the page is assigned a rank of zero.
The AND operator has a higher precedence than OR. For example, the first three queries are equal, but the fourth is not:a AND b OR c
c OR a AND b
c OR (a AND b)
(c OR a) AND b

Note: The NEAR operator can be applied only to words or phrases.

Wildcards

Wildcard operators help you find pages containing words similar to a given word.

To Search For	Example	Results
Words with the same prefix	comput*	Pages with words that have the prefix “comput,” such as “computer,” “computing,” and so on
Words based on the same stem word	fly**	Pages with words based on the same stem as “fly,” such as “flying,” “flown,” “flew,” and so on

Free-Text Queries

The query engine finds pages that best match the words and phrases in a free-text query. This is done by automatically finding pages that match the meaning, not the exact wording, of the query. Boolean, proximity, and wildcard operators are ignored within a free-text query. Free-text queries are prefixed with $contents.

To Search For	Example	Results
Files that match free-text	$contents how do I print in Microsoft Excel?	Pages that mention printing and Microsoft Excel.

Vector Space Queries

The query engine supports vector space queries. Vector queries return pages that match a list of words and phrases. The rank of each page indicates how well the page matched the query.

To Search For	Example	Results
Pages that contain specific words	light, bulb	Files with words that best match the words being searched for
Pages that contain weighted prefixes, words, and phrases	invent*, light[50], bulb[10], "light bulb"[400]	Files that contain words prefixed by “invent,” the words “light,” “bulb,” and the phrase “light bulb” (the terms are weighted)

Components in vector queries are separated by commas.
Components in vector queries can be weighted by using the [weight] syntax.
Pages returned by vector queries do not necessarily match every term in the query.
Vector queries work best when the results are sorted by rank.

Property Names

Property names are preceded by either the “at” (@) or number sign (#) character. Use @ for relational queries, and # for regular expression queries.

If no property name is specified, @contents is assumed.

Properties available for all files include:

Property Name	Description
All	Matches words, phrases, and any property
Contents	Words and phrases in the file
Filename	Name of the file
Size	File size
Write	Last time the file was modified

Regular Expressions

Regular expressions in property queries are defined as follows:

Any character except asterisk (*), period (.), question mark (?), and vertical bar (|) defaults to matching just itself.
Regular expressions can be enclosed in matching quotes (“), and must be enclosed in quotes if they contain a space ( ) or closing parenthesis ()).
The characters *, ., and ? behave as they behave in Windows; they match any number of characters, match (.) or end of string, and match any one character, respectively.
The character | is an escape character. After |, the following characters have special meaning:
( opens a group. Must be followed by a matching ).

) closes a group. Must be preceded by a matching (.

[ opens a character class. Must be followed by a matching (un-escaped) ].

{ opens a counted match. Must be followed by a matching }.

} closes a counted match. Must be preceded by a matching {.

, separates OR clauses.

* matches zero or more occurrences of the preceding expression.

? matches zero or one occurrences of the preceding expression.

+ matches one or more occurrences of the preceding expression.

Anything else, including |, matches itself.
Between square brackets ([]) the following characters have special meaning:

^ matches everything but following classes. Must be the first character.

] matches ]. May only be preceded by ^, otherwise it closes the class.

- range operator. Preceded and followed by normal characters.

Anything else matches itself (or begins or ends a range at itself).

Between curly braces ({}) the following syntax applies:

|{m|} matches exactly m occurrences of the preceding expression. (0 < m < 256).

|{m,|} matches at least m occurrences of the preceding expression. (1 < m < 256).

|{m,n|} matches between m and n occurrences of the preceding expression, inclusive. (0 < m < 256, 0 < n < 256).

To match *, ., and ?, enclose them in brackets (for example, |[*]sample will match “*sample”).

Query Examples

Example	Results
@write > 95/12/23	Pages modified after the date
Apple tree	Pages with the phrase “apple tree”
"apple tree"	Same as above
@contents apple tree<	Same as above
Microsoft and @size > 1000000	Pages with the word “Microsoft” that are larger than one million bytes
"microsoft and @size > 1000000"	Pages with the phrase specified (not the same as above)
#filename *.avi	Video files (the # prefix is used because the query contains a regular expression)
@attrib ^s 32	Pages with the archive attribute bit on
@docauthor = John Smith	Pages with the given author
$contents why is the sky blue?	Pages that match the query
@size < 100 & #filename *.gif	Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) files less than 100 bytes in size