Boolean operators allow, during a document search, to link the words of a query with one another in order to refine the results.
Boolean operators are logical conjunctions placed between two words or expressions to better target the search. Depending on the operators chosen, the number of results will be reduced or increased.
They allow you to target the results of a search by combining, adding or deleting search terms.
They are frequently used on search engines. Nowadays, algorithms are able to understand whole sentences. Nevertheless, search engines will interpret the Boolean operators in your query to provide you with more consistent results.
The most common ones are :
- AND, enabling you to search for two correlated terms
- OR, enabling you to search for two terms distinctly
- NOT, enabling you to exclude à terms from your search
A Boolean operator is usually written in capital letters so that it can be identified as such and not be confused with a term we want to search for.
You can combine several Boolean operators when searching on the Geotrend platform.
To learn more about the global use of Boolean operators, please refer to the article Boolean operators accepted by the platform.