Search syntax

You can modify your query by means of the following syntax. For more information on the search syntax used in OLAT please go to: Apache Lucene .

Single terms: e.g. Olat
Phrases: should be put in double quotation marks, e.g. "carbonated water"

Boolean operators: Single terms as well as phrases can be linked by Boolean operators. Attention: Boolean operators have to be in capital letters.
OR: If you do not use Boolean operators between terms you are searching for use the OR operator.
For example: "Analysing water" Calcium and "Analysing water" OR Calcium will generate the same results, that is, all documents containing either "Analysing water" or "Calcium" .
AND: Using the AND operator will show documents containing all terms you are searching for.
For example: "Analysing water" AND "Calcium" will show documents containing "Analysing water" as well as "Calcium" .
NOT: Using the NOT operator will eliminate documents containing specific terms.
For example: "Analysing water" AND "Calcium" NOT "Tap water" will show a document containing "Analysing water" and "Calcium" but not "Tap water" .

Searching by means of wildcards: You can choose between two different kinds of wildcards in order to look for specific word fragments.
The question mark within a term stands for any single letter.
For example: The query te?t will result in finding all documents containing the words "test", "text" etc.
The asterisk within a term stands for any number of letters.
For example: The query test* will result in finding all documents containing words beginning with "test". The asterisk can also be put within a term: te*t

Fuzzy search: By means of the tilde (swung dash) ~ you can search for words with similar spelling.
For example: The query sauna~ will result in finding documents containing words such as "sauna", "saunas" or "fauna".

Special characters: The following characters are part of the search syntax in OLAT:
+ - && | ! ( ) { } [ ] ^ " ~ * ? : \
If your query contains on of these characters you have to mask it using the backslash .
For example: If you are looking for the equation (1+1):2=? you have to write \(1\+1\)\:2=\? instead.

Searching through fields: In order to search through fields you can select the mode Advanced search (different fields are linked by the AND operator). Or you can search through fields by means of your own Boolean link. In order to do this please use the following field names in the Simple search mode:
title (=Title)
description (=Description)
content (=Searching through a text)
documenttype (=Document type)
filetype (=File type)
author (=Author)
created (=Creation date)
changed (=Last modification)
Example: description:Calcium will only search through the field Description

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