Boolean Operators

AND, OR, and NOT/AND NOT

To match all words you enter, use AND between words:

Smith AND Jones
Finds items containing the words Smith and Jones.

To match any words you enter, use OR between words:

sun OR moon OR stars
Finds items containing any of these words: sun or moon or stars.

To exclude a word from the search, use NOT or AND NOT before the word:

NOT Obama AND NASA
Finds items containing the word NASA (such as NASA exploration plan), but excluding the word Obama (such as Obama approves the NASA exploration plan).

strike AND NOT baseball
Finds items containing the word strike (such as a transit strike or airline strike) but not items with the words strike and baseball (such as baseball strike).

Specifying an Exact Name or Phrase

To match the exact name or phrase, use quotation marks "  " around the phrase or names:

"Central Services"
Finds headlines or stories containing the exact phrase Central Services, not just the word Central or the word Services. This also prevents word expansion (or word stemming), so Central Service or Centrally Serviced does not match.

Specifying Search Order

To specify the order in which your search terms are processed, surround the first set that you want processed with parentheses:

(media OR censorship) AND NOT radio
Since words enclosed by parenthesis are searched first, this example finds items containing the word media or censorship, then excludes those that also contain the word radio.

reptiles AND (snakes AND NOT habitats)
Finds items containing the word snakes but not habitats, then returns items that also contain the word reptiles. Items about snakes and reptiles would be returned, but not about snake habitats.

In this example, removing the parentheses does not change the results:

reptiles AND snakes AND NOT habitats
Finds items containing the words snakes and reptiles, then excludes items that also have the word habitats.

In this example, the parentheses does change the results:

reptiles AND (snakes OR habitats)
Finds items containing either the words reptiles and snakes, or reptiles and habitats.

reptiles AND snakes OR habitats
Finds items containing either the words reptiles and snakes or the word habitats.

Boolean Logic

AP Exchange uses standard Boolean precedence rules and searches for news items in this order:

1. Words surrounded by parentheses.

2. Words surrounded by quotation marks.

3. Words connected by NOT, AND, and finally, OR.

The sections on the Advanced Search page are connected via the AND operator. If no Boolean operator(s) are used within the keywords in the Search box and/or Advanced Search page boxes, AND is automatically used between words. This means that all words entered into the search boxes must be found in a news item for it to be returned from a search. The Selected Categories box on the Advanced Search page inserts an OR between sources, so the search returns all items that it finds with these matching categories.

After adding criteria into the Advanced Search boxes, they are combined into one search query using the following rules:

(Keywords 1 AND 2) AND (Metadata Field Specific Criteria) AND (Media Type 1 OR 2) AND (Released/time range) AND (Selected Products 1 OR 2)

For example, the search criteria:

Keywords: computer technology

Metadata Field: cycle=bc

Media Type: Text, Photo

Released In the last: 24 hours

Source: AP, Primezone

Is equivalent to the search query:

(computer AND technology) AND (cycle=bc) AND (mediatype=(text OR photo)) AND (posted in the last 24 hours) AND (source=(AP OR Primezone)).