Is there any hierarchy to PortWeb Finds?

The order or precedence will be the order that the syntax is presented, e.g.:
find all keywords matching "dog"
AND
find all keywords matching "cat"
OR
find all keywords matching "mouse"
AND
find all keywords matching "pig"

This equates to...
(((dog AND cat) OR mouse) AND pig)
...as opposed to...
(dog AND cat) OR (mouse AND pig)
...as you might assume - or intend. In other words, it will find a record with matches for dog+cat+mouse or dog+cat+pig but not dog+cat or mouse+pig.

If you are not used to writing queries use the (((dog AND cat) OR mouse) AND pig) example to work out the hierarchy of your own query. Write the first pair of arguments (words) links by and/or and put brackets around them, e.g. (dog AND cat). now add another argument and put bracket round everything, e.g. ((dog AND cat) OR mouse), and continue until done - up to 10 arguments are allowed by both Portfolio and PortWeb. To work out what gets searched for, work through from the innermost set of brackets outwards.

It is pretty straight forward, working exactly like the sequential layout in Find dialog box in the client software. Remember that in general 'AND' restricts the search and 'OR' widens it.

If you want to do more complex nested searches, e.g. (dog AND cat) OR (mouse AND pig), you are out of luck unless you have SQLConnect and can write true SQL queries.

Question: Is there any hierarchy to PortWeb Finds? [FAQ00204.htm]
Last Update:- 31 May 2006

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