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First Principles of Business Law |
| Finding law online |
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6. Advanced search techniques |
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6.2. Using Boolean 'connectors' in search terms |
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George Boole 1815 - 1864
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Boolean searching is based on an 'algebra of concepts' invented by George Boole, a British mathematician. Boolean searching involves using the connectors 'and', 'or' and 'not' in between individual key words. Each connector specifies the relationship between the key words. Connectors are used in various combinations to control exactly how the search will operate. Click on each of the search terms below to see how they would operate in a Boolean search. In the explanatory diagrams that you will see, each circle represents a group of documents. The coloured areas show which documents will be found by the particular search term. You can see how some documents are found and others ignored. A Boolean search only finds documents that match each and every parameter of the search term. Documents will be ignored if there is even the slightest departure from the search term.
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