Term modifiers

You can modify query terms to provide a wide range of search options.

The following term modifiers are supported:

Wildcard searches
Fuzzy searches
Proximity searches
Range searches
Boosting a term

Wildcard searches

Lucene supports single- and multiple-character wildcard searches within single terms. Use the question mark (?) for a single-character wildcard search and an asterisk (*) for a multiple-character wildcard search. Multiple-character wildcard searches look for zero or more characters.

Attention: The wildcard characters ? or * cannot be used as the first character of a search.

Examples:

Search for the words test or text:
```
te?t
```
Search for test, tests, or tester:
```
test*
```

Fuzzy searches

A fuzzy search is a type of search that finds matches even if search terms are misspelled or only partial words are specified. To do a fuzzy search, use the tilde (~) symbol at the end of a term.

Example:

Search for a term similar in spelling to word:
```
word~
```
This search term will match wood, work, dword, wordy, ford, and so on, as well as word.

Proximity searches

Lucene supports finding words that are within a short distance of one another in a record field. To perform a proximity search, use the tilde (~) symbol followed by a number at the end of a phrase.

Example:

Search for and Beta2 within ten words of one another in a record field:
```
"Beta1 Beta2"~10
```

Range searches

Range searches allow you to match records that contain field values between the lower and upper bounds specified by the query. Range queries can be inclusive or exclusive.

Inclusive-range queries are denoted by square brackets and the operator TO:

[LowerBound TO UpperBound]

Exclusive-range queries are denoted by curly brackets and the operator TO:

{LowerBound TO UpperBound}

Range queries are not reserved for numeric fields. You can also perform a range search on fields with alphabetic values. Sorting is performed lexicographically. As such, records returned by a range-search query do not have a relevance score.

Examples:

Find records with SubmitDate field values between 2007 and 2008, inclusive:
```
SubmitDate:[2007 TO 2008]
```
Narrow your search to the month of October 2007:
```
SubmitDate:[20071001 TO 20071031]
```
Find records with SubmitDate field values that range from 01 October 2008 through the newest record in the user database, inclusive:
```
SubmitDate:[20081001 TO *]
```
Find records with Headline values that range between alpha and delta, including alpha and excluding delta:
```
Headline:[alpha TO delta}
```
Your result set might include records with headlines that start with alpha, alpha1, beta, beta1, and beta2.

Boosting a term

Lucene provides a relevance score for matching records that is calculated by the configured analyzers. To boost the weight of a term or phrase in a query, use a caret (^) symbol and a boost factor (a number) following the term or phrase. The higher the boost factor, the more relevant the term or phrase is.

The default boost factor is 1. Although the boost factor must be a positive number, it can be less than 1, for example, 0.2, to lower the relevance of records that contain the term or phrase.

Examples:

Suppose you plan to run the following search:
```
beta OR alpha
```
To make records with the term beta appear more relevant in the result set score than records with the term alpha, use the boost symbol ^ followed by a boost factor:
```
beta^4 OR alpha
```
Make the records containing the phrase beta 7.1 appear more relevant in the result set score than those containing the phrase alpha 7.1:
```
"beta 7.1"^2 OR "alpha 7.1"
```