You can search for words or phrases using wildcard expressions. Wildcard expressions allow you to search for one or more characters using a question mark or asterisk. The table below describes the results of these different kinds of searches.
|
Search for |
Example |
Results |
|
A single word |
retire |
Topics that contain the word "retire." (You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "retirement" and "retiree.") |
|
A phrase |
"early retirement" or early retirement |
The query is equivalent to specifying "early AND retirement," which will find topics containing both of the individual words, instead of the phrase. |
|
A wildcard expression |
employ* or 90?10 |
Topics that contain the terms "EMPLOY," "employee," "employment," and so on. The asterisk cannot be the only character in the term.
Topics that contain the terms "90110," "90210," "90310," and so on. The question mark cannot be the only character in the term. |
The AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR operators enable you to precisely define your search by creating a relationship between search terms. The following table shows how you can use each of these operators. If no operator is specified, AND is used. For example, the query "ERI pension benefits" is equivalent to "ERI AND pensions AND benefits."
|
Search for |
Example |
Results |
|
Both terms in the same topic. |
disability and benefits |
Topics containing both the words "disability" and "benefits" |
|
Either term in a topic |
ECO or SLEP |
Topics containing either the word "ECO" or the word "SLEP" or both |
|
The first term without the second term. |
ECO not SLEP |
Topics containing the word "ECO," but not the word "SLEP." |
|
Both terms in the same topic, close together. |
ERI near eligibility |
Topics containing the word "ERI" within eight words of the word "eligibility." |
Note: The |, &, and ! characters don't work as Boolean operators (you must use OR, AND, and NOT).