Site Guide Advanced Search Tips

Index Server Query Language

Using Boolean Search Criteria , you can build a query using the advanced Search syntax of Microsoft Index Server. Highlights follow!

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Boolean and Proximity Operators

Boolean and proximity operators can be used to create a more precise query.

To search for	Example	Results
both terms in the same page	access and basic -or- access & basic	pages with both the words "access" and "basic"
either term in a page	cgi or isapi -or- cgi | isapi	pages with the words "cgi" or "isapi"
the first term without the second term	access and not basic -or- access & ! basic	pages with the word "access" but not "basic"
pages not matching a property value	not @size = 100 -or- ! @size = 100	pages that are not 100 bytes
both terms in the same page, close together	excel near project -or- excel ~ project	pages with the word "excel" near the word "project"

Hints:

• You can use 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, "Abbot and Costello" will match pages with the phrase, not pages that match the boolean expression.
• The Near operator returns a match if the words are within 50 words of each other.
• The Not operator can only be used after an And operator in content queries; it can only be used to exclude pages that match a previous content restriction. For property value queries, the Not operator can be used apart from the And operator

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Wildcards

Wildcard operators are useful for finding pages with 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.

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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 Excel?	Pages that mention printing and Excel.

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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 that best match the words
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 using the [weight] syntax.
• Pages returned by vector queries don't necessarily match every term in the query.
• Vector queries work best when the results are sorted by rank.

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Property Value Queries

Property value queries can be used to find files that have property values that match a given criteria. The properties over which you can query include basic file information like file name and file size, and OLE properties including the document summary that is stored in files created by OLE-aware applications.

There are two types of property queries, relational queries and regular expression queries.

• Relational property queries consist of an at character (@), a property name, a relational operator, and a property value. For example, to find all of the files larger than one million bytes, issue the query "@size > 1000000".
• Regular expression property queries consist of a pound character (#), a property name, and a regular expression for the property value. For example, to find to find all of the video (AVI) files, issue the query "# filename *.avi". Regular expressions will never match the special properties contents (#contents) and all (#all).

Property Names

Property names are preceded by either the at (@) or pound (#) 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 any property
contents	words and phrases in the file
filename	name of the file
size	file size
write	file last modification time

OLE property values can also be used in queries. Web sites with files created by most OLE-aware applications can be queried for these properties:

Property name	Description
DocTitle	title of the document
DocSubject	subject of the document
DocAuthor	the document's author
DocKeywords	keywords for the document
DocComments	comments about the document

A more complete list of properties can be found here.

Relational operators

Relational operators are used in relational property queries.

To search for	Example	Results
property values in relation to a fixed value	@size < 100 @size <= 100 @size = 100 @size != 100 @size >= 100 @size > 100	files whose size matches the query
property values with all of a set of bits on	@attrib ^a 0x820	compressed files with the archive bit on
property values with some of a set of bits on	@attrib ^s 0x20	files with the archive bit on

Property values

To search for	Example	Results
a specific value	@DocAuthor = Bill Gates	files authored by "Bill Gates"
values beginning with a prefix	#DocAuthor George*	files whose author property begins with "George"
files with any of a set of extensions>	#filename *.|(exe|,dll|, sys|)	files with ".exe", ".dll", or ".sys& quot; extensions
files modified after a date	@write > 96/2/14 10:00:00	files modified after February 14, 1996 at 10:00 GMT
files modified after a relative date	@write > -1d2h>	files modified in the last 26 hours
vectors matching a vector	@vectorprop = { 10, 15, 20 }	OLE documents with a vectorprop value of { 10, 15, 20 }
vectors where each value matches a criteria	@vectorprop >^a 15	OLE documents with a vectorprop value in which all values in the vector are greater than 15
vectors where at least one value matches a criteria	@vectorprop =^s 15	OLE documents with a vectorprop value in which at least one value is 15

• Be sure to use the pound (#) character before the property name when using a regular expression in a property value, and an at (@) character otherwise. The equal (=) relational operator is assumed for regular expression queries.
• File name (#filename) is the only property that supports regular expressions with wildcards to the left of text. Wildcards in regular expressions for all other properties must come after a prefix.
• Date and time values are of the form yyyy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss. The first two characters of the year and the entire time can be omitted. Dates and times are in GMT.
• Dates and times relative to the current time can be expressed with a minus (-) character followed by zero or more integer and time unit pairs. Time units are expressed as: (y) for years, (m) for months, (w) for weeks, (d) for days, (h) for hours, (n) for minutes, and (s) for seconds.
• Currency values are of the form x.y, where x is the whole value amount and y is the fractional amount. There is no assumption about units.
• Boolean values are (t) or (true) for true and (f) or (false) for false.
• Vectors (VT_VECTOR) are expressed as an opening brace ({), a comma-separated list of values, then a closing brace (}).
• Single value expressions that are compared against vectors are expressed as a relational operator, then a (^a) for All Of or a (^s) for Some Of.
• Numeric values can be in decimal or hex (preceeded by 0x).
• The contents property does not support relational operators. If a relational operator is specified, no results will be found. For example, "@contents Microsoft" will find documents containing Microsoft, but "@contents=Microsoft" will find none.

Regular expressions

Regular expressions in property queries are defined as follows:

• Any character except, *, ., ?, and | 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 ()).
• *, ., and ? behave as they behave in Windows/NT (match any number of characters, match (.) or end of sentence, and match any one character respectively)
• | 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 of more occurrences of preceding expression.
  • ? matches zero or one occurrences of preceding expression.
  • + matches one or more occurrences of preceding expression.
  • anything else, including | matches itself
• Between [ and ] the following characters have special meaning:
  • ^ Match 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/ends a range at itself)
• Between { and } 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 (e.g. |[*]foo will match "*foo")

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Query Examples

List of Property Names

These properties are always available for queries. Additional properties may also be available depending on the configuration of the web server.

Property Name	Description
Access	Last time file was accessed.
All	Everything.
AllocSize	Size of disk allocation for file.
Attrib	File attributes.
ClassId	Class Id of object..
Change	Last time file was changed (includes changes to attributes).
Characterization	Characterization / abstract of document. Computed by Index Server.
Contents	Main contents of file.
Create	Time file was created.
DocAppName	Name of application owning file.
DocAuthor	Author of document.
DocCharCount	Number of characters in document.
DocComments	Comments about document.
DocCreatedTm	Time document was created.
DocEditTime	Total time spent editing document.
DocKeywords	Document keywords.
DocLastAuthor	Most recent user who edited document.
DocLastPrinted	Time document was last printed.
DocLastSavedTm	Time document was last saved.
DocPageCount	Number of pages in document
DocRevNumber	Current version number of document.
DocSubject	Subject of document.
DocTemplate	Name of template for document.
DocTitle	Title of document.
DocWordCount	Number of words in document.
FileIndex	Unique id of file.
FileName	Name of file.
HitCount	Number of hits (words matching query) in file.
HtmlHRef	Text of HTML HREF.
Path	Full physical path to file, including filename.
Rank	Rank of row. Ranges from 0 to 1000. Larger numbers indicate better matches.
SecurityChange	Last time security was changed on file.
ShortFileName	Short (8.3) file name.
Size	Size of file, in bytes.
USN	Update Sequence Number. Ntfs drives only.
VPath	Full virtual path to file, including filename. If more than one possible path, then the best match for the specific query is chosen.

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Miscellaneous Tips on Query Syntax

• Queries are case-insensitive: you can type your query in uppercase or lowercase.
• You may 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.
• Punctuation marks such as the period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), and comma (,) are ignored during a search.
• To use specially-treated characters ( (&), (|), (^), (#), (@), ($), ((), ()) ) in a query, enclose your query in quotes (").