Searching the PeopleSoft Online Library

Topics

Query Syntax

The syntax you use when entering search criteria is much like that used in any popular internet search engine. Here are some basic groundrules:

The search engine is case-sensitive. To find all term matches, regardless of capitalization, type your terms in lowercase letters. If you use mixedcase capitalization, only terms that match your exact capitalization will be found.
Search for a phrase by entering the words separated by spaces. You do not need to enclose the phrase in quotes.
Enclose terms in double quotation marks only if you want the search engine to interpret the terms literally. In this case, no word stem variations will be found.
Search for multiple terms by using AND, OR, and NOT to perform a Boolean search.

Here are some basic sample queries and the results they would return.

Query String	Finds
meet	The word meet plus stemmed variations, such as meets and meeting.
back up	The phrase back up plus stemmed variations such as backs up, backing up, and back ups.
"meet"	The word meet only.
"back up"	The phrase back up only.
back "up"	The word back plus stemmed variations, followed by the word up only. For example: back up, backing up and backs up.
sql and sqr	Topics containing both sql and sqr.
list or report	Topics containing list or report.
report not sqr	Topics containing report but not sqr.

Advanced Query Syntax

Now that you understand that the basic search syntax, you can make your queries even more powerful by using wildcards, proximity searches, field searches, and nested searches.

Topics

Wildcard Characters

Proximity Operators

Field Search Operator

Nested Queries

Wildcard Characters

You can use wildcard characters to expand your search if you are not sure of the spelling of your search term.

Asterisks (*) substitute for a string of characters of any length.
Question marks (?) substitute for any single character.

Note. When you use wildcards, the search term is interpreted literally, as if it were enclosed in quotes.

Here are some examples.

Query String

Finds

map*

re*t

map, maps, mapping, mapper, maple, etc.

rest, react, report, reticent, etc.

c?t

qu???y

cat, cot, cut, etc.

queasy, quirky, etc.

Proximity Operators

You can refine a search by using proximity search operators to retrieve documents that contain the search terms in close proximity to each other. These operators are similar to the Boolean AND, but limit the hits to terms found in the same sentence or paragraph. Also, the proximity operators take precedence over the Boolean operators in processing order.

The <SENTENCE> operator is used between two terms to find those terms within the same sentence.
The <PARAGRAPH> operator is used between two terms to find those terms within the same paragraph.

Here are some examples.

Query String	Finds
sql <sentence> table	Topics that contain sql and table in the same sentence.
sql <paragraph> table	Topics that contain sql and table in the same paragraph.
sql <sentence> table or field	Topics that contain either sql and table in the same sentence, or that contain field.

Field Search Operator

The <IN> operator is used to specify the field to be searched. (Only the title field is available).

Query String	Finds
sql <in> title	Topics that contain sql in the topic title.

Nested Queries

You can enclose search terms and their operators in parentheses to specify the order that they are interpreted. Information within parentheses is processed first, and then information outside parentheses is processed.

Query String	Finds
(crystal or sqr) and panel	Topics that contain panel as well as crystal or sqr.
report and (sql <sentence> (sqr or cobol) or crystal <sentence> field)	Topics that contain report plus a sentence with sql and sqr, or a sentence with sql and cobol, or a sentence with crystal and field.

The Advanced Search Page

At the Advanced Search page, you can control which title or library you want to search and define how you want the search results formatted. You navigate to the Advanced Search page by clicking the Advanced Search link on the Search tab.

Topics

Scope Options

Results Formatting Options

Scope Options

You can opt to search all titles in the library by clicking Search all titles. Or, you can specify one title to be searched by clicking Search selected title and choosing one of the titles from the list box. The default Scope option will vary, depending on where you have jumped to this page from. If you have jumped from a library home page, Search all titles will be selected. However, if you have jumped from a particular book, Search selected title will be selected and that book's title will be displayed in the list box.

Results Formatting Options

You can specify whether to Sort the results by Score then by book title, or by Book title then by score.

You can choose to Show additional information in the results. For example, when you sort by score, you may want to see the Book title in each result, or to see No book titles. When you sort by book title, you probably want to display Book titles as headings, which is the default setting.

Finally, you can determine the number of "hits" you want appear in each page by choosing a Hits per page value. The default is value is 10, but you can also choose 20, 50, 100, or 200.

Note. At the Search tab, the search options are fixed as described below and can not be changed.

Scope: If you are viewing a library home page, all books in the library will be searched. If you are viewing a particular book, just that book will be searched.

Sort: Documents are sorted by book title, then by score.

Show additional information: Book titles are in each result when searching all titles (at a library home page).

Hits per page: 50.