Nice to know
Nesting terms
Many databases and some search engines also allow for more complex searchesby nesting search terms. In order to indicate what must be combined using AND and which terms must be combined using OR, and in what order, you can nest terms. This is done using parentheses.
Example:
If you search for
"travel smartcard" AND (security OR “fraud susceptibility”)
you will find documents about the fraud susceptibility of the travel smartcard..
If you remove the parentheses
“travel smartcard” AND security OR “fraud susceptibility”
your search will also return documents dealing with fraud susceptibility but not involving the travel smartcard.
Combining sets
In Think up search terms you have seen that every search query consists of several components. For each component, you have subsequently created a set of suitable search terms.
These sets consist of alternatives for your search term(s), such as translations and synonyms. The terms within a set are connected using OR, because you wish at least one of these terms to occur in your search results. The different sets are then combined using AND, because you wish search terms from each set to occur in your search results.
In the following example, we combine alternatives for the term greenhouse effect with variations of the term coal-fired power stations. This is a schematic representation of this search query:
Your search query is, in other words:
