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Use Boolean operators and wildcards in your searches to find what you're looking for, fast.
Boolean operators can help you to find information in Aconex. This list isn't exhaustive, but it does provide a starting point for your advanced searching.
Use boolean operators in the main Aconex search bar (sometimes referred to as super search), when searching documents, mail, workflows, and tenders.
Neither of these wildcards can be used as the first character of your search.
| You're searching for: | Boolean or wildcard operator | Special character | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| a word where you only know the first few letters | * | We’ve search on Pe* in the Family Name field of the Global Directory. All people whose Family Name starts with ‘Pe’ are listed in the search results. | |
| a word where you’re not sure of one letter | ? | smit? Will find Smith and Smite, but not Smitkovicz. Note that this doesn't work in Directory: it is seen as a character, not an operator. | |
| documents that contain several keywords | AND | && , space | paint AND tiles returns only documents that contain both these keywords. paint && tiles, paint, tiles, paint tiles are other ways you can create the same search. |
| documents that contain either keyword | OR | || | paint OR tiles returns all documents that contain either paint or tiles. Paint || tiles can create the same search. |
| documents that contain one keyword but not the other | NOT | ! | paint NOT tiles, will return only documents that mention paint. If the document mentions paint and tiles they will not be returned in the search. |
| an exact phrase | " " | Searching “plant room” will return results that contain these exact words where they are separated by a space or a hyphen. This means it will find matches for both “plant room” and “plant-room”. Similarly searching “CCD G 9163” will find matches for both “CCD G 9163” and “CCD-G-9163”. | |
| something like this, but not quite. Use a fuzzy search | ~ | Search for a term similar in spelling to "roam" using the fuzzy search: roam~. This finds foam and roams and rooms. You can also manage how specific or ‘fuzzy’ the search is. Add a value between 0 and 1. 1 is more specific, 0 is less specific. For example: roam~0.8 If you don’t specify a number when you use a fuzzy search it will default to searching with 0.5. | |
| a range of results | TO | Search for all documents that have the revision letter C, D, E or F using the operator revision:[c TO f] | |
| using two boolean operators together | () | Used to group clauses to form sub queries. This can be very useful if you want to control the Boolean logic for a query. For example, (area OR plan) AND architectural finds area and architectural as well as plan and architectural. |
