Sometimes called near or within searching, proximity search looks for terms that are not more than a certain number of words apart.
- /n
- Replace n with a number to locate terms that occur within the specified number of words from each other, regardless of word order.
- /p
- Connects terms to be found in the same paragraph regardless of word order (that is, within 15 words by default unless modified by your administrator).
- /s
- Connects terms to be found in the same sentence regardless of word order (that is, within 5 words by default unless modified by your administrator).
- pre/n
- Replace n with a number to locate terms within the specified number of words from each other, where the first term always precedes the second.
- pre/p
- Connects terms to be found in the same paragraph (that is, within 15 words) where the first term always precedes the second.
- pre/s
- Connects terms to be found in the same sentence (that is, within 5 words) where the first term always precedes the second.
When using proximity search, keep in mind:
- Always separate an operator from its parameters with a space.
- Count stop words and the ending word when determining the proximity separation number.
- A phrase is considered as a single word.
- Terms must be at least one term apart; a /0 proximity search will return an error.
- Do not add a w before the proximity operator, for example,
w/2, as the added character will cause the search to return inconsistent results. -
Proximity expressions are always executed in exact match mode.
Examples for any search mode
| Search Query | Search Results |
|---|---|
|
john /2 smith |
Proximity search is useful for name searching. This search would return documents where John’s middle name or initial appear between his first and last name. This search would not return a document that contains, for example, John D. U. Smith, as Smith is three words apart from John. Tip: Also, consider name variations that cannot be found with this search query: John might be known as Johnny or Jonathan or Jon or Mr. Smith. |
|
surge /8 east |
A document that contains not more than 7 words between surge and east is returned as a hit, for example, surge of cold air is settling into the East. It does not matter if surge precedes east or vice versa. |
|
"tender offer" /5 checklist |
This search finds documents where tender offer and checklist are not more than 5 words apart. Tender offer is considered as a single word. The search would return a document containing tender offer or other included in checklist. |
|
surge pre/8 east |
A document that contains not more than 7 words between surge and east is returned as a hit, so long as surge precedes east. |
|
agreement /s merger |
A document is a hit if it contains agreement and merger separated by not more than four words. |
| agreement pre/s merger | A document is a hit if it contains agreement and merger separated by not more than four words, so long as agreement precedes merger. |
Example for a search in concept mode
| Search Query | Search Results |
|---|---|
| company AND merger PRE/s agreement |
This search finds documents that contain concepts related to companies that also contain the exact word merger followed by the exact word agreement where merger and agreement are separated by any four words. |