Search Order and Parentheses

When you use two or more different operators, the order in which these operators are executed is determined by operator precedence. You can override this order by using parentheses (grouped terms between round brackets). Content within parentheses is interpreted as one unit. Operators within brackets have priority over operators outside brackets. It is advised to use parentheses in complex search statements (more than two different operators).

When using brackets, you can leave a space between the operator/term and the first bracket, or not:

NOT(term)

NOT (term)

Search Order and Parentheses Examples

Examples	Results
(cars AND sales) OR car dealer	When OR precedes AND, use parentheses to first find the files that are connected with the operator AND. Files with cars and sales are retrieved. From that group, files with car dealer are selected.
(disk drive AND printer AND modem) OR (sales AND revenue AND profit)	Files with all terms from at least one set of parentheses are retrieved: disk drive, printer, modem disk drive, printer, modem, sales, revenue, profit sales, revenue, profit
((cars AND trucks) OR trains) AND (ships OR submarines)	Only files with terms from both sides are retrieved: cars, trucks, ships, submarines cars, trucks, ships cars, trucks, submarines cars, trucks, trains, ships, submarines cars, trucks, trains, ships cars, trucks, trains, submarines trains, ships trains, ships, submarines trains, submarines
chicago OR los angeles AND new york equals (chicago OR los angeles) AND new york	Remember: OR precedes AND. chicago, new york los angeles, new york chicago, los angeles, new york
chicago OR (los angeles AND new york)	Parentheses overrides precedence. chicago los angeles, new york chicago, los angeles, new york