Searching Effectively (Part 1)- Boolean - Conjunction Disjunction, What's Your Search Function?

[britt_champeau]

Creating good searches requires a few skills I'll be covering in my blog series, Searching Effectively. Due to a steady stream of questions related to Boolean operators, I'll discuss common Boolean searches. Don't worry, it is much easier than Boolean algebra, though it does follow the same rationale.  

Conjunction

Conjunction is the AND function, which, in a search, means you want to receive results that contain not just one of your search terms, but all of them. This type of search does not consider the order of a search term.

For example, if I'm planning to take a vacation to Portland, but I'm not sure what to do while I'm there, I submit the following search:

Portland AND Oregon AND Attractions

The Venn diagram shows how these search results are returned. Notice some results may contain only Portland, some results may contain only Oregon, and some results may contain only Attractions, but only a small portion of results, as identified by the blue center of the diagram, contain all three words.

Disjunction

Disjunction is the OR function, which, in a search means you want to receive results that contain one or more of your terms.

For example, if I want to read a book or graphic novel this weekend with either Mon Mothma, Cambria Kilgannon, or Malcolm Reynolds, I would submit the following search:

Mon Mothma OR Cambria Kilgannon OR Malcolm Reynolds

The Venn diagram shows how these search results are returned. Notice OR is used to expand a search to provide more results. This search requested results that have met any of the conditions. Unfortunately, there are no books or graphic novels that contain all three characters, though that would be amazing.

Negation

Negation, or logical complement, is the NOT function, which, in a search means you want to receive results that contain your search terms, but do not contain other specific terms. Negation includes NOT searches, AND NOT searches, and OR NOT searches.

AND NOT

AND NOT searches limit results by requiring multiple search term matches and excluding specific terms from those results.

For example, if I want to find movies with Jeff Goldblum AND Richard Attenborough but NOT Julianne Moore, I would submit the following search:

"Jeff Goldblum" AND "Richard Attenborough" NOT "Julianne Moore"

The Venn diagram shows how these search results are returned. Notice results are not returned if all three actors are in the same movie (Jurassic Park: The Lost World), if only Jeff Goldblum and Julianne Moore are in the same movie (Nine Months), or if only Richard Attenborough and Julianne Moore are in the same movie (none).   The results for this search are identified in the area marked in blue between Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough. Jurassic Park screening session anyone?

OR NOT

OR NOT searches are not as exclusive as AND NOT searches as they require only one matched result, but exclude others.

For example, if I want to cook dinner tonight and I want to make something with chicken OR noodles, but NOT tomatoes, I would submit the following search:

Chicken OR Noodles NOT Tomatoes

The Venn diagram shows how these search results are returned. Notice results are returned if there are chicken OR noodles, or chicken AND noodles, but everything, which includes tomatoes, is excluded from the search.

Oh My!

Sometimes the key to retrieving great results is knowing the kind of results to expect when you enter your search terms. Additional information related to general searching and Boolean operators is available in the product documentation article Introduction to Searching - Boolean Operators.

In the next installment in this series, I'll discuss some tips and tricks for entering a search in HI or any ServiceNow instance.