Using BOOLEAN LOGIC to Search

      Because the Internet is so huge, searches will often provide too many results.  Boolean logic is the most important technique for limiting results in any database or search engine search.

    The principal Boolean operators are:

AND

+ Use AND to get fewer search results cake AND chocolate

OR   Use OR to get more search results

adolescents OR teenagers

NOT - Use NOT to get fewer search results

media NOT radio

         Note: AND, OR, and NOT should be capitalized.

       Person or Phrase searching:  The most common method to search a phrase or a person is to surround it  with quotation marks:

       "acid rain"         "George Washington"

       Truncation or wildcard:  Truncation is a technique that enables a searcher to look for a word and any of its possible endings.  This is sometimes called using a wild card as it usually enables the searcher to insert a symbol (like an asterisk * or ?) as a wild card at the end of the word.  This instructs the computer to look for the root of the word and all alternative word endings:

For example, search for the word child* would also searching for the words:

childish

children

children's 

       Different databases and search engines may use symbols for truncation.  Common symbols are ?  and *

     Some databases and search engines will automatically truncate the words entered to look for the plural or an "ing" or and "ed" ending.