In an explicit query, the Verity search engine literally interprets your search terms. The following are two ways to perform an explicit query:

• On a search form, use quotation marks around your search term(s).
• In CFML, use type="explicit" in the cfsearch tag.

When you put a search term in quotation marks, Verity does not use the STEM operator. For example, a search for "instructional"--enclosed in quotation marks, as shown in Preventing stemming--does not return files that contain instruct, instructs, instructions, and so on (unless the files also contain instructional).

When you specify type="explicit" the search expression must be a valid Verity Query Language expression. As a result, an individual search term must be in explicit quotation marks. The following table shows valid and invalid criteria:

Using AND, OR, and NOT

Verity has many powerful operators and modifiers available for searching. However, users might only use the most basic operators--AND, OR, and the modifier NOT. The following are a few important points:

• You can type operators in uppercase or lowercase letters.
• Verity reads operators from left to right.
• The AND operator takes precedence over the OR operator.
• Use parentheses to clarify the search. Terms enclosed in parentheses are evaluated first; innermost parentheses are evaluated first when there are nested parentheses.
• To search for a literal AND, OR, or NOT, enclose the literal term in double-quotation marks; for example:

  love "and" marriage

For more information, see Operators and modifiers.

The following table gives examples of searches and their results:

Using wildcards and special characters

Part of the strength of the Verity search is its use of wildcards and special characters to refine searches. Wildcard searches are especially useful when you are unsure of the correct spelling of a term. Special characters help you search for tags in your code.

Searching with wildcards

The following table shows the wildcard characters that you can use to search Verity collections:

To search for a wildcard character as a literal, place a backslash character before it:

• To match a question mark or other wildcard character, precede the ? with one backslash. For example, type the following in a search form: Checkers\?
• To match a literal asterisk, you precede the * with two backslashes, and enclose the search term with either single or double quotation marks. For example, type the following in a search form: 'M\\*' (or "M\\*") The following is the corresponding CFML code:

  <cfsearch name = "quick_search"
      collection="bbb" 
      type = "simple"
  	criteria="'M\\*'">
  

  
  

Searching for special characters

The search engine handles a number of characters in particular ways as the following table describes:

To search for special characters as literals, precede the following nonalphanumeric characters with a backslash character (\) in a search string:

• comma (,)
• left parenthesis (
• right parenthesis )
• double-quotation mark (")
• backslash (\)
• left curly brace ({)
• left bracket ([)
• less than sign (<)
• backquote (`)

In addition to the backslash character, you can use paired backquote characters (` `) to interpret special characters as literals. For example, to search for the wildcard string "a{b" you can surround the string with back quotation marks, as follows:

`a{b`

To search for a wildcard string that includes the literal backquote character (`) you must use two backquote characters together and surround the entire string in back quotation marks:

`*n``t` 

You can use paired back quotation marks or backslashes to escape special characters. There is no functional difference between the two. For example, you can query for the term: <DDA> using \<DDA\> or `<DDA>` as your search term.