Search Tips

Search Tips

On this page:

Basic Tips
Searching for Formulas, Mathematics, and Exact Phrases
Searching By Date, ID, or Version
Complex Search Syntax
Complex Search Syntax PDF

Search Information Elsewhere in Help:

Search FAQs: Q&A about typical search needs and problems
Search Basics: Explanation of queries, stemming, wildcards, term weighting
Search Problem-Solver: How to solve specific search problems that yet2.com has seen
Search Command Reference: Powerful search commands and how to use them

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Basic Tips

The yet2.com search engine works like Google or many of the other search engines you may have used.

Type a series of individual words or quoted phrases to search for listings that contain all those words or phrases (in any order). A space between words is equivalent to AND. For example: process chemical.

Separate words or phrases with AND (or type +) to search for listings that contain all words or phrases. For example: process AND chemical, process + chemical.
Separate words or phrases with OR (or type ,) to search for listings that contain any of those words or phrases. For example: process OR chemical, process, chemical.
Put NOT (or type -) in front of a word or quoted phrase to search for listings that do not contain the word or phrase. For example: process NOT chemical, process -chemical.

All searches are completely case-insensitive. yet2.com makes no distinction between capital letters and lowercase letters.

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Important: Using commas to separate words broadens your search to include more documents. To narrow your search, separate words and phrases with AND.

Searching for Formulas, Mathematics, and Exact Phrases

Put all formulas, mathematics, and exact phrases -- such as the title of a TechPak -- inside double quotation marks, like these examples:

"poly(ethylene glycol-400) distearate"

"Water-Based Binder System Enables Fast, Low-Cost Ceramic Injection Molding"

Scientific formulas often use parentheses or commas that can confuse a general-purpose search engine. Always use double-quotation marks for them.

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Escaping Double Quotation-Marks

Putting your search terms inside double quotation-marks forces yet2.com to interpret your search as a phrase. For example:

"binder eases bulk transport"

If you did not use double quotation-marks in this case, yet2.com would search for listings that contain all four of the words in this query.

If you type a search query that also includes double quotation marks, you must escape (specially note) those marks using a backslash character. For example, if the phrase you are looking for is binder "eases" bulk transport, you need to search for it this way:

"binder \"eases\" bulk transport"

Without the backslashes, the yet2.com search engine would look for three terms: binder (and only binder, because it falls between two quotation marks), eases (which the search engine would stem), and bulk transport (because they, too, fall between quotation marks).

As the number of double quotation-marks increases in your search phrase, you need to nest the escapes -- much as you nest parentheses -- from the inside out. For example, the Complex Search Syntax requires your search query to appear between double quotation marks even if it is not a quoted phrase, but they are quotation marks nonetheless; when a complex query includes a phrase, you´ll need to escape the quotation marks:

VQL:"chemical AND processing OR \"binder \\"eases\\" bulk transport\""

The outermost pair of double quotes delimit the complex query. The next innermost pair, which indicate the exact phrase, are escaped using a single backslash. The final innermost pair requires two escape characters. If you had an additional second-level pair, you would escape them the same way:

VQL:"chemical AND processing OR \"binder \\"eases\\" bulk \\"goods\\" transport\""

Searching By Date, ID, or Version

You can search for listings from a given month in the past through to the current month. For example: date:3 finds all listings published during the three months prior to the current date. date:6 finds listings published during the six months prior to the current date. For example, processes +chemical +date:3 finds all TechPaks containing "processes" and "chemical" published during the past three months.

You can search for listings by specific ID number. Each listing has a unique ID. For example: id:12345 finds the listing with that specific ID.

Each time a yet2.com listing is revised, yet2.com increments its version number. You can search for version numbers by typing: version:#, where # is the version. For example, "My TechPak Title" + version:2

Stemming

yet2.com automatically uses stemming. (You can halt that behavior by typing your search term inside double quotation marks, for example, "oil".) Stemming takes your search term and tries various endings with that term. For example, stemming oil would return listings that contain oil, oils, oiling, oilers, and so forth.

Stemming works only with endings of recognizable words. Typing smi does not return Smith and smithereens because smi is not a word.
Stemming is not the same as using a wildcard. Typing oi does not return boil, roil, and oil.
If you use multiple terms in a query -- for example chemical AND process -- yet2.com stems each of the terms, finding listings that contain chemical, chemicals, chemically, process, processes, processors, processing, and so forth.

Use * (asterisk) as a wildcard to stand for any number of letters anywhere in a word. Use ? (question mark) to stand for any single character anywhere in a word.

Complex Search Syntax

At the heart of yet2.com is a powerful search engine that can understand a complex search syntax. Most users -- even "power" users -- won´t use the full search syntax. If you need to, however, it is there.

Important: To use the complex search syntax, precede your search terms with VQL:, and double-quote the content of the search query.

For example: VQL:"satellite <NEAR> positioning" finds listings with the word "satellite" near the word "positioning." You must include the entire query inside double-quotation marks. If quotation marks also appear inside the query, you must precede each quotation mark with a backslash:

VQL:"satellite <NEAR> positioning AND \"My TechPak Title\""

Complex Search Syntax PDF

See Download Central for a complete reference guide for the query engine that yet2.com uses. This large PDF document details all search functions available to you.

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Examples

Example

Returns

high frequency actuator

Returns listings that contain the words "high" and "frequency" and "actuator" in any order. All three words must be present; all three words are stemmed.

high frequency AND actuator
high frequency + actuator

Returns listings that contain the words "high" and "frequency" and "actuator" in any order. All three words must be present; all three words are stemmed.

high frequency OR actuator
high frequency, actuator

Returns listings that contain both the words "high" and "frequency," or that contain the word "actuator."

high frequency NOT actuator
high frequency -actuator

Returns listings that contain the words "high" and "frequency," but that do not contain the word "actuator."

oil

Stemming is built-in, so "oil" returns listings that contain "oils," "oiler," "oiling," and so forth.

*ology

Returns all listings that contain words ending in "ology," such as technology, oncology, and biology.

id:12345

Returns the listing with the ID of 12345.

"polymer resin" -plastic 1-butanol

Returns listings that include "polymer resin" and that do not include "plastic" and "1-butanol"

date:1

Returns listings from the past month.

VQL: "*<IN> taxonomy_item <WHEN> (key=240000)"

Executes the complex query (*<IN> taxonomy_item <WHEN> (key=240000))

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su_searchtips

Example	Returns
high frequency actuator	Returns listings that contain the words "high" and "frequency" and "actuator" in any order. All three words must be present; all three words are stemmed.
high frequency AND actuator high frequency + actuator	Returns listings that contain the words "high" and "frequency" and "actuator" in any order. All three words must be present; all three words are stemmed.
high frequency OR actuator high frequency, actuator	Returns listings that contain both the words "high" and "frequency," or that contain the word "actuator."
high frequency NOT actuator high frequency -actuator	Returns listings that contain the words "high" and "frequency," but that do not contain the word "actuator."
oil	Stemming is built-in, so "oil" returns listings that contain "oils," "oiler," "oiling," and so forth.
*ology	Returns all listings that contain words ending in "ology," such as technology, oncology, and biology.
id:12345	Returns the listing with the ID of 12345.
"polymer resin" -plastic 1-butanol	Returns listings that include "polymer resin" and that do not include "plastic" and "1-butanol"
date:1	Returns listings from the past month.
VQL: "*<IN> taxonomy_item <WHEN> (key=240000)"	Executes the complex query (*<IN> taxonomy_item <WHEN> (key=240000))


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