Experts Exchange Search Help Page

Home

This page, compiled by webtubbs, is intended as a supplement to the Advanced Search. If you're looking for it, you can find it by editing one of your saved searches -- but a word of caution: if you save the edited search with a new name, it will replace the search you have edited. It will not create a new search.

A complete list (as of February 1, 2010) of zones is located here.

Terms

A query is broken up into terms and operators. There are two types of terms: Single Terms and Phrases.
A Single Term is a single word such as "test" or "hello".
A Phrase is a group of words surrounded by double quotes such as "hello dolly".
Multiple terms can be combined together with Boolean operators to form a more complex query (see below).

Fields

A wide variety of fields are currently available for use in Custom Queries. These are outlined in the table below. A few notes:

All field names are case sensitive
To specify a field and the terms, first enter the field name, a colon, then the search term, for example
```
    title:word
```
will return questions or articles with the word "subject" in the title.
To search for a phrase, you must enclose the words in quotations. E.g.:
```
    title:"How to"
```
will return those questions on articles with "How to" in the title.
Multiple fields can be combined into the one query by seperating them by a space. For example, return all questions asked by member 'webtubbs' in the Excel zone, your query would look like this:
```
    asker:webtubbs taid:604
```
If you are using a range or boolean operator on a specific field, enclose them with parentheses. For example, to return questions asked by member 'webtubbs' in either the Excel or VB.Net zones and asked between 1 January 2009 to 30 June 2009, your query would look like this:
```
    asker:webtubbs taid:(604 OR 866) submitdate:[2009010100 TO 2009063024]
```

Date Fields

Date fields must always use the format YYYYMMDDHH when using search terms, where HH is in 24 hour format.

Wild Cards

The following wild cards are supported by the Custom Query:

    ? - Single character
Title:te?t - this will find questions with words like "test" or "text" in the title

    * - Multiple characters Title: test* - this will find questions with "test", "tests" or "tester" in the title.

Note: You cannot use wildcards at the beginning of the search terms.

Boosting
The Custom Query provides a means to boost a question or articles relevance, which in turn will return them higher in the search results. To boost a term use the caret, "^", symbol with a boost factor (a number) at the end of the term you are searching. The higher the boost factor, the more relevant the term will be. For example, if you are searching for:
    jakarta apache
and you want the term "jakarta" to be more relevant boost it using the ^ symbol along with the boost factor next to the term. You would type:
    jakarta^4 apache
This will make documents with the term "jakarta" appear more relevant. You can also boost Phrase Terms as in the example:
    "jakarta apache"^4 "jakarta lucene"
By default, the boost factor is 1. Although, the boost factor must be positive, it can be less than 1 (i.e. .2)

Fuzzy Searching
EE supports fuzzy searches based on the Levenshtein Distance, or Edit Distance algorithm. To do a fuzzy search use the tilde, "~", symbol at the end of a Single word Term. For example to search for a term similar in spelling to "roam" use the fuzzy search:
    roam~
This search will find terms like "foam" and "roams". Note: Terms found by the fuzzy search will automatically get a lower boost factor of 0.2.

Proximity Searching
EE supports finding words that are within a specific distance away. To do a proximity search use the tilde, "~", symbol at the end of a Phrase. For example to search for "apache" and "jakarta" within 10 words of each other in the specified field use the search:
    "jakarta apache"~10

Boolean Operators
Boolean operators allow terms to be combined through logic operators. EE supports AND, "+", OR, NOT and "-" as Boolean operators (Note: Boolean operators must be ALL CAPS).

The OR operator is the default conjunction operator. This means that if there is no Boolean operator between two terms, the OR operator is used. The OR operator links two terms and finds a matching question or article if either of the terms exist in the specified field. The symbol || can be used in place of the word OR. For example, to search for questions or articles with "jakarta apache" or just "jakarta" in the question body, use the query:
    body:"jakarta apache" jakarta
        - or -
    body:"jakarta apache" OR jakarta

The AND operator matches documents where both terms exist anywhere in the text of a single document. The symbol && can be used in place of the word AND. To search for questions that contain "jakarta apache" and "jakarta lucene" in the question body, use the query:
    body:"jakarta apache" AND "jakarta lucene"

The "+" or required operator requires that the term after the "+" symbol exist somewhere in the field of a single document. To search for questions that must contain "jakarta" and may contain "lucene" in the title use the query:
    title:+jakarta apache

The NOT operator excludes questions or articles that contain the term after NOT within the specified field. The symbol "!" can be used in place of the word NOT. To search for questions that contain "jakarta apache" but not "jakarta lucene" in the question body, use the query:
    body:"jakarta apache" NOT "jakarta lucene"
Note: The NOT operator cannot be used with just one term. For example, the following query will return no results:
    body:NOT "jakarta apache"

The "-" or prohibit operator excludes questions or articles that contain the term after the "-" symbol within the specified field. For example, to search for questions that contain "jakarta apache" but not "jakarta lucene" in the question body, use the query:
    body:"jakarta apache" -"jakarta lucene"

Grouping
EE supports using parentheses to group clauses to form sub queries. This can be very useful if you want to control the boolean logic for a query. To search for either "jakarta" or "apache" and "website" use the query:
    (jakarta OR apache) AND website
This eliminates any confusion and makes sure you that "website" must exist and either term "jakarta" or "apache" may exist.
Range Queries
When performing searches on a number field, such as 'Points', you may wish to specify a range of numbers. For example, you may wish to find all questions which contain the "jakarta apache" keywords in the body, but whose point values are between 200 and 400. Range queries should always be enclosed within parentheses. To search for "jakarta apache" in the body of the question and whose jakarta point values are between 200 and 400, use the query:
    body:("jakarta apache") AND points:(200 TO 400)
Date ranges, on the other hand, must be enclosed in square brackets, for example:
    submitdate:[2009010100 TO 2009013124]
to restrict the search to questions asked in January 2009.

The available fields are available for use in the Custom Query:

Name Description Expected
Values Usage

id Return questions by Question ID Can be used to search for a single question ("id:24810186"), or a range of questions ("id:2481018?" to return all questions from QID 24810180 thru 24810189)

neglected Returns questions that are designated as Neglected neglected:1 to restrict the search to questions that are neglected

taid Return questions from given Zone ID Can be used to limit the search to one or more Zones. E.g., taid:(866 or 604) to restrict the search to VB.Net and MS Excel zones

typeid Return questions of a specific type Open = 10
Closed = 30 "typeid:30" to limit search to questions which have been closed.

grade Return closed question of a given grade A = 4
B = 3
C = 2
D = 1 "grade:4" to limit search to A grade question only

title Returns Questions or Articles with the specified terms and/or phrases in the Title title:"How to Succeed" to limit the search to questions or articles with "How to Succeed" in the title.

body Returns Questions or Articles with the specified terms and/or phrases in the body of the question or article body:"How to Succeed" to limit the search to questions or articles with "How to Succeed" in the body of the question or article.

content Returns Questions or Articles with the specified terms and/or phrases in the question body or comments in the question or article content:"How to Succeed" to limit the search to questions or articles with "How to Succeed" in the body or comments of the question or article.

area Returns questions or articles with the specified terms and/or phrases in the Topic Area (Zone) area:Microsoft to limit the search to those questions asked in zones containing the word "Microsoft"

commentbodys Returns questions or articles with the specified terms and/or phrases in the comments commentbodys:"How to Succeed" to restrict the search to questions or articles with "How to Succeed" in any of the comments

everything Returns questions or articles with the specified terms and/or phrases anywhere in the question or article everything:"How to Succeed" to limit the search to questions or articles with "How to Succeed" anywhere in the question or article.

codesnippet Returns Questions or Articles with the specified terms and/or phrases in the code snippet/s of the question or article codesnippet:"How to Succeed" to limit the search to questions or articles with "How to Succeed" in the code snippet/s of the question or article.

points Returns questions with the assigned points between the specified numbers points:(200 TO 400) to limit the search to questions with assigned points between 200 and 400.

comments Returns questions or articles with the specified number of comments comments:(>50) to limit the search to questions or articles with greater than 50 comments.

questionscore Returns questions with the specified score questionscore:(>9.5) to limit the search to questions with a score greater than 9.5.

askerid Return questions asked by member(s) with the specified member ID askerid:3470508 to limit search to questions asked by 'webtubbs'

asker Returns questions asked by the specified member name asker:webtubbs to limit the search to questions or articles created by member webtubbs

answererid Return questions answered by the specified member(s) answererid:(3470508 or 1677072) to limit the search to questions answered by'webtubbs' or 'zorvek'.

answerername Return questions answered by the specified member(s) answerername:(webtubbs or zorvek) to limit the search to questions answered by 'webtubbs' or 'zorvek'.

assisterids Return questions with assisted solutions from the specified member(s) assisterids:(3470508 or 1677072) to limit the search to questions with an assisted solution from 'webtubbs' or 'zorvek'.

assistername Return questions with assisted solutions from the specified member(s) assistername:(webtubbs or zorvek) to limit the search to questions with an assisted solution from 'webtubbs' or 'zorvek'.

authorcommentname Return questions with comments made by the specified asker name authorcommentname:webtubbs to limit the search to questions commented in by asker 'webtubbs'.

authorcommentid Return questions with comments made by the specified asker ID authorcommentid:3470508 to limit the search to questions commented in by asker 'webtubbs'.

expertcommentname Return questions with expert comments made by the specified member name expertcommentname:webtubbs to limit the search to questions with expert comments from member 'webtubbs'.

expertcommentid Return questions with expert comments made by the specified member ID expertcommentid:3470508 to limit the search to questions with expert comments from member 'webtubbs'.

discussioncommentname Return questions with discussion comments made by the specified member name discussioncommentname:webtubbs to limit the search to questions with discussion comments from member 'webtubbs'.

discussioncommentid Return questions with discussion comments made by the specified member ID discussioncommentid:3470508 to limit the search to questions with discussion comments from member 'webtubbs'.

submitdate Return questions asked on or within the specified dates submitdate:[2009010100 TO 2009013124] to restrict the search to questions asked in January 2009

acceptdate Return questions answered on or within the specified dates acceptdate:[2009010100 TO 2009013124] to restrict the search to questions answered in January 2009.

modifydate Return questions with any activity within the specified dates modifydate:[2009010100 TO 2009013124] to restrict the search to questions modified in January 2009

closurerequesteddate Return questions with a pending close request within the specified dates closurerequesteddate:[2009101500 TO 2009101700] to restrict the search to questions with a pending close request made between 15 Oct 09 and 17 Oct 09.

lastcommentdate Returns questions with the last comment made within the specified dates lastcommentdate:[2009100100 TO 2009101524] to restrict the search to questions with the last comment made between 1 Oct 09 and 15 Oct 09.

lastauthorcommentdate Returns Questions with the last author comment made between the specified dates lastauthorcommentdate:[2009100100 TO 2009101524] to restrict the search to questions with the last author comment made between 1 Oct 09 and 15 Oct 09.

lastexpertcommentdate Returns Questions with the last expert comment made between the specified dates lastexpertcommentdate:[2009100100 TO 2009101524] to restrict the search to questions with the last expert comment made between 1 Oct 09 and 15 Oct 09.

awaitingresponse Return questions awaiting a response from the author True=1
False=2 taid:604 awaitingresponse:0 to limit the search to questions asked in the Excel zone and awaiting a response from the author

eeApproved Return articles marked EE-Approved by the PEs True=1
False=2 eeApproved:1 to limit the search to articles marked EE-Approved by the PEs.

eeEditorsChoice Return articles marked as Editors Choice by the PEs True=1
False=2 eeEditorsChoice:1 to limit the search to articles marked as Editors Choice. by the PEs.

eeApprovedDate Returns Articles which were marked as EE Approved between the specified dates eeApprovedDate:[2009100100 TO 2009101524] to restrict the search to articles marked as EE Approved between 1 Oct 09 and 15 Oct 09.

eeEditorsChoiceDate Returns Articles which were marked as Editors Choice between the specified dates eeEditorsChoiceDate:[2009100100 TO 2009101524] to restrict the search to articles marked as Editors Choice between 1 Oct 09 and 15 Oct 09.

alltags Returns questions or articles with thespecified terms and/or phrases in the tags. alltags:Microsoft to restrict the search to questions or articles with the word "Microsoft" inthe tags.

filenames Returns questions or articles with the specified terms and/or phrases in the file attachments filenames:test to restrict the search to questions or articles where an attachments name contains the word "test"

filedesc Returns questions or articles with the specified terms and/or phrases in the file descriptions filedesc:test to restrict the search to questions or articles where an attachments description contains the word "test"