Advanced Search Options And Help

Using the search function in a specific way by adding a few simple operators allows you to get the most out of the information held in our huge archive of articles.   We explain the most common ones here:

Using OR in your search

This operator allows a search to return results that contain any of the search terms you provide - it is the default setting on the site so you don’t need to provide it when using the search box

Example: A search for enterprise OR growth is the same as for enterprise growth because the search defaults to the OR operator

Using AND in your search

This operator ensures that all words can be found in each of the search results

Example: You wish to search for articles that contain the words planner and planning – but not necessarily in that order or next to each other – just somewhere in the article, so you would enter planner AND planning  into the keywords field

Using + in your search

The "+" operator ensures the term after the "+" symbol exists somewhere in each search result, while the words in front of it will only be included if they appear

Example: You wish to search for articles that contain either the words heritage or conservation but always contain the word building so you would enter heritage conservation + building into the search field

Using - or NOT in your search

The "-" operator ensures term after the "-" symbol DOES NOT exist in each search result (you can also just include the word NOT)

Example: You wish to search for articles that contain the word environment but must not contain the word carbon so you enter environment –carbon or environment not carbon

Phrases

If you wish to search for a phrase with multiple words as an exact phrase, you can do this using double quote marks

Example: You wish to search for articles that contain the exact phrase Community Infrastructure Levy so you would enter "Community Infrastructure Levy"

Combining operators – Advanced Searches

You can combine the operators above to create more complex, grouped searches:

Example 1: You wish to search for articles that contain the phrase economic development and MUST mention employment land so you would use both double quote marks along with AND into the search field: "economic development" AND "employment land"

Example 2: You wish to search for articles that contain the word planning and EITHER appeal OR ombudsman so you would enter planning AND (appeal OR ombudsman)