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Boolean operators are words or characters used to concatenate parts of a search query using Boolean logic. While each part of the chain of parts is evaluated individually, the whole chain, defined by the operators, needs to be true for a search result to get listed.

The syntax of EasyFind's Boolean operators is identical to the one of DEVONagent and DEVONthink.

  • AND, BUT, +, & : Logical And
  • OR, | : Logical Or
  • NOT, -, ! : Logical Not
  • ~ : Proximity to match partial words/substrings, too (otherwise only complete words are accepted). Placed in front of the search word
  • XOR, EOR, ^ : Logical Exclusive Or
  • NEAR : Matches words within a range of ten words
  • NEAR/n : Matches words within a range of n words
  • AFTER, BEFORE, NEXT : Matches words appearing before or after each other. Can be combined with /n, see NEAR/n.
  • () : Parenthesis, groups parts of the query logically
  • "" : Phrases, find exactly the string in the quotes; phrases can contain the '*' operator.

Example:

  • steve AND jobs : Matches everything containing both 'steve' and 'jobs' regardless of their position.
  • ~DEVONtech : Matches 'DEVONtech' as well as 'DEVONtechnologies'
  • steve BEFORE/2 jobs : Matches 'Steve Jobs' as well as 'Steve P. Jobs' or 'Steve looks for jobs'.
  • "Steve Jobs" : Matches only exactly the string 'Steve Jobs'.

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