How can I construct a more complex search in Basic Search?

To conduct a search for a phrase or an exact match, place your search in quotation marks (e.g. "tool steels") to require all words be present and in the order specified.

The relevancy and ranking algorithmsopens in new tab/window generally give top-most ranking to exact phrase matches.

Knovel supports the Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT to combine different search criteria. When using multiple Boolean operators, they are processed left to right unless they are grouped using parentheses to explicitly inform the order of processing. Operations in parentheses are evaluated first.

For example, a user looking for information about dust caused by blasting or shaking who forms their query as dust AND blasting OR shaking may get irrelevant results. Without the use of groupings, the query will be executed as if it had been written as (dust AND blasting) OR shaking. In this interpretation, shaking may be returned with or without dust. To ensure the query is executed as intended, it should be entered as dust AND (blasting OR shaking).

When no explicit Boolean operator has been entered, Knovel assumes the user intends all the words to be required, i.e. an understood AND is applied.

You can use the following Boolean operators in your searches:

To search by Title, Author, or Publisher, use title: , author: , or publisher: , where the field being searched is followed by a colon (:), and then followed by the term(s).

• The specific search for a title name will provide only books in the results. Entering a title without the title: syntax will return many different types of content that match the query, not just books.
• Author searches may be constructed using first, last, or first and last names, e.g., author: carl yaws or author: yaws depending on how targeted the user wishes to be.

Wildcards may be used to represent one or more characters. An asterisk (*) is used to specify any number of characters, typically used at the end of a root word to pick up various endings. A question mark (?) is used to represent a single character anywhere in the word.

• Example: bio* will find results for biomaterials, bioactive, bioeconomy, biomedical and more.
• Example: Sm?th will find results for Smith and Smyth.

Using Knovel’s synonym toolopens in new tab/window in your concept query is an easy way to return comprehensiveness results without your needing to account for the varied ways an engineering concept may be known. Note that we automatically look for synonymous property names without you needing to set anything on the page.

At this time, to ensure a comprehensive search for a chemical compound, you should include the synonymous names of the chemical name in your query. For example, a user looking for information on acetaldehyde will want to construct their query as acetaldehyde OR ethanal to ensure results for both synonymous names.

Currently, a limited number of chemical compounds entered will automatically pick up synonymous names.

Several examples show you how this is done:

• To search by CAS Registry No., enter 71-43-2.
• To search by molecular formula, enter c6h6.
• To search by UNS number, enter R56400.

You can also search for CAS No., Molecular Formulas or UNS numbers in Knovel’s Material Property Searchopens in new tab/window to restrict results to interactive content (tabular).