Index Server Query Language Using the Search Criteria Boolean Search (Step #2), you can build a query using the advanced Search syntax of Microsoft Index Server. Highlights follow! Boolean and Proximity Operators Boolean and proximity operators can be used to create a more precise query. To search for Example Results both terms in the same page access and basic -or- access & basic pages with both the words "access" and "basic" either term in a page cgi or isapi -or- cgi | isapi pages with the words "cgi" or "isapi" the first term without the second term access and not basic -or- access & ! basic pages with the word "access" but not "basic" pages not matching a property value not @size = 100 -or- ! @size = 100 pages that are not 100 bytes both terms in the same page, close together excel near project -or- excel ~ project pages with the word "excel" near the word "project" Hints: You can use parentheses to nest expressions within a query. The expressions in parentheses are evaluated before the rest of the query. Use double quotes (") to indicate that a boolean or near operator keyword should be ignored in your query. For example, "Abbot and Costello" will match pages with the phrase, not pages that match the boolean expression. The Near operator returns a match if the words are within 50 words of each other. The Not operator can only be used after an And operator in content queries; it can only be used to exclude pages that match a previous content restriction. For property value queries, the Not operator can be used apart from the And operator Wildcards Wildcard operators are useful for finding pages with words similar to a given word. To search for Example Results words with the same prefix comput* pages with words that have the prefix "comput", such as "computer", computing", and so on. words based on the same stem word fly** pages with words based on the same stem as "fly", such as "flying", "flown", "flew", and so on. Free-Text Queries The query engine finds pages that best match the words and phrases in a free-text query. This is done by automatically finding pages that match the meaning, not the exact wording, of the query. Boolean, proximity, and wildcard operators are ignored within a free-text query. Free-text queries are prefixed with "$contents". To search for Example Results files that match free-text $contents how do I print in Excel? Pages that mention printing and Excel. Vector Space Queries The query engine supports vector space queries. Vector queries return pages that match a list of words and phrases. The rank of each page indicates how well the page matched the query. To search for Example Results pages that contain specific words light, bulb files that best match the words pages that contain weighted prefixes, words, and phrases invent*, light[50], bulb[10], "light bulb"[400] files that contain words prefixed by "invent", the words "light", "bulb", and the phrase "light bulb". The terms are weighted. Components in vector queries are separated by commas. Components in vector queries can be weighted using the [weight] syntax. Pages returned by vector queries don't necessarily match every term in the query. Vector queries work best when the results are sorted by rank. Property Value Queries Property value queries can be used to find files that have property values that match a given criteria. The properties over which you can query include basic file information like file name and file size, and OLE properties including the document summary that is stored in files created by OLE-aware applications. There are two types of property queries, relational queries and regular expression queries. Relational property queries consist of an at character (@), a property name, a relational operator, and a property value. For example, to find all of the files larger than one million bytes, issue the query "@size > 1000000". Regular expression property queries consist of a pound character (#), a property name, and a regular expression for the property value. For example, to find to find all of the video (AVI) files, issue the query "# filename *.avi". Regular expressions will never match the special properties contents (#contents) and all (#all). Property Names Property names are preceded by either the at (@) or pound (#) character. Use (@) for relational queries, and (#) for regular expression queries. If no property name is specified, @contents is assumed. Properties available for all files include: Property name Description all matches any property contents words and phrases in the file filename name of the file size file size write file last modification time OLE property values can also be used in queries. Web sites with files created by most OLE-aware applications can be queried for these properties: Property name Description DocTitle title of the document DocSubject subject of the document DocAuthor the document's author DocKeywords keywords for the document DocComments comments about the document A more complete list of properties can be found here. Relational operators Relational operators are used in relational property queries. To search for Example Results property values in relation to a fixed value @size < 100 @size <= 100 @size = 100 @size != 100 @size >= 100 @size > 100 files whose size matches the query property values with all of a set of bits on @attrib ^a 0x820 compressed files with the archive bit on property values with some of a set of bits on @attrib ^s 0x20 files with the archive bit on Property values To search for Example Results a specific value @DocAuthor = Bill Gates files authored by "Bill Gates" values beginning with a prefix #DocAuthor George* files whose author property begins with "George" files with any of a set of extensions> #filename *.|(exe|,dll|, sys|) files with ".exe", ".dll", or ".sys& quot; extensions files modified after a date @write > 96/2/14 10:00:00 files modified after February 14, 1996 at 10:00 GMT files modified after a relative date @write > -1d2h> files modified in the last 26 hours vectors matching a vector @vectorprop = { 10, 15, 20 } OLE documents with a vectorprop value of { 10, 15, 20 } vectors where each value matches a criteria @vectorprop >^a 15 OLE documents with a vectorprop value in which all values in the vector are greater than 15 vectors where at least one value matches a criteria @vectorprop =^s 15 OLE documents with a vectorprop value in which at least one value is 15 Be sure to use the pound (#) character before the property name when using a regular expression in a property value, and an at (@) character otherwise. The equal (=) relational operator is assumed for regular expression queries. File name (#filename) is the only property that supports regular expressions with wildcards to the left of text. Wildcards in regular expressions for all other properties must come after a prefix. Date and time values are of the form yyyy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss. The first two characters of the year and the entire time can be omitted. Dates and times are in GMT. Dates and times relative to the current time can be expressed with a minus (-) character followed by zero or more integer and time unit pairs. Time units are expressed as: (y) for years, (m) for months, (w) for weeks, (d) for days, (h) for hours, (n) for minutes, and (s) for seconds. Currency values are of the form x.y, where x is the whole value amount and y is the fractional amount. There is no assumption about units. Boolean values are (t) or (true) for true and (f) or (false) for false. Vectors (VT_VECTOR) are expressed as an opening brace ({), a comma-separated list of values, then a closing brace (}). Single value expressions that are compared against vectors are expressed as a relational operator, then a (^a) for All Of or a (^s) for Some Of. Numeric values can be in decimal or hex (preceeded by 0x). The contents property does not support relational operators. If a relational operator is specified, no results will be found. For example, "@contents Microsoft" will find documents containing Microsoft, but "@contents=Microsoft" will find none. Regular expressions Regular expressions in property queries are defined as follows: Any character except, *, ., ?, and | defaults to matching just itself. Regular expressions can be enclosed in matching quotes ("), and must be enclosed in quotes if they contain a space ( ) or closing parenthesis ()). *, ., and ? behave as they behave in Windows/NT (match any number of characters, match (.) or end of sentence, and match any one character respectively) | is an escape character. After |, the following characters have special meaning: ( opens a group. Must be followed by a matching ) ) closes a group. Must be preceded by a matching ( [ opens a character class. Must be followed by a matching (un-escaped) ] { opens a counted match. Must be followed by a matching } } closes a counted match. Must be preceded by a matching { , separates OR clauses * matches zero of more occurrences of preceding expression. ? matches zero or one occurrences of preceding expression. + matches one or more occurrences of preceding expression. anything else, including | matches itself Between [ and ] the following characters have special meaning: ^ Match everything but following classes. Must be the first character. ] Matches ]. May only be preceded by ^, otherwise it closes the class. - Range operator. Preceded and followed by normal characters anything else matches itself (or begins/ends a range at itself) Between { and } the following syntax applies: |{m|} matches exactly m occurrences of the preceding expression. (0 < m < 256) |{m,|} matches at least m occurrences of the preceding expression. (1 < m < 256) |{m,n|} matches between m and n occurrences of the preceding expression, inclusive. (0 < m < 256, 0 < n < 256) To match *, ., and ?, enclose them in brackets (e.g. |[*]foo will match "*foo") Query Examples Example here Results @size > 1000000 pages larger than one million bytes @write > 95/12/23 pages modified after the date Apple tree pages with the phrase "apple tree" "apple tree" same as above @contents apple tree same as above Microsoft and @size > 1000000 pages with the word " Microsoft" that are larger than one million bytes "microsoft and @size > 1000000" pages with the phrase specified (not the same as above) #filename *.avi video files. (the '#' prefix is used because the query contains a regular expression) @attrib ^s 32 pages with the archive attribute bit on @docauthor = William Gates pages with the given author $contents why is the sky blue? pages that match the query @size < 100 & #filename *.gif GIF files less than 100 bytes in size List of Property Names These properties are always available for queries. Additional properties may also be available depending on the configuration of the web server. Property Name Description Access Last time file was accessed. All Everything. AllocSize Size of disk allocation for file. Attrib File attributes. ClassId Class Id of object.. Change Last time file was changed (includes changes to attributes). Characterization Characterization / abstract of document. Computed by Index Server. Contents Main contents of file. Create Time file was created. DocAppName Name of application owning file. DocAuthor Author of document. DocCharCount Number of characters in document. DocComments Comments about document. DocCreatedTm Time document was created. DocEditTime Total time spent editing document. DocKeywords Document keywords. DocLastAuthor Most recent user who edited document. DocLastPrinted Time document was last printed. DocLastSavedTm Time document was last saved. DocPageCount Number of pages in document DocRevNumber Current version number of document. DocSubject Subject of document. DocTemplate Name of template for document. DocTitle Title of document. DocWordCount Number of words in document. FileIndex Unique id of file. FileName Name of file. HitCount Number of hits (words matching query) in file. HtmlHRef Text of HTML HREF. Path Full physical path to file, including filename. Rank Rank of row. Ranges from 0 to 1000. Larger numbers indicate better matches. SecurityChange Last time security was changed on file. ShortFileName Short (8.3) file name. Size Size of file, in bytes. USN Update Sequence Number. Ntfs drives only. VPath Full virtual path to file, including filename. If more than one possible path, then the best match for the specific query is chosen. Miscellaneous Tips on Query Syntax Queries are case-insensitive: you can type your query in uppercase or lowercase. You may search for any word except for those in the exception list (for English, this includes a, an, and, as, and other common words) which are ignored during a search. Words in the exception list are treated as placeholders in phrase and proximity queries. Punctuation marks such as the period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), and comma (,) are ignored during a search. To use specially-treated characters ( (&), (|), (^), (#), (@), ($), ((), ()) ) in a query, enclose your query in quotes (").