Understanding Construct vs Boolean Searches

Boolean searches are a subset of all the search commands that have to do with relationships between words or a group of words. The connecting search commands are distinguished by angled brackets, such as <AND>, while stand-alone commands use square brackets, such as [KEY ]. Simple Boolean searching is not strictly directional, but uses more of a word relationship comparison when indicating relationships between words.

A Construct search, however, is strictly directional and has the following consequences:

  1. When searching for two words, the Construct gives results identical to those obtained when using the <FOLLOWEDBY> command or the [AND] command IF the Search both directions item is selected (at the bottom of the Construct tab).
  2. When searching for three or more words the role of the middle word affects the search.
  3. Construct Search: When searching in one direction the Construct tab provides search results strictly in the order of the words set up in the Construct.
  4. Boolean Search: If you use <FOLLOWEDBY> twice for three words, such as X <FOLLOWEDBY> Y <FOLLOWEDBY> Z (where X, Y, and Z are the search words), the hits are somewhat different because they are evaluated sequentially according to the search argument: Y will follow X, but Z could be followed by either X or Y, since Z is the last term to be evaluated.
  5. When using the <AND> command, note the following for three words:
  6. Construct Search: If the Construct tab is set to search both directions with the sequence X, Y, Z, the displayed hits are for both X, Y, and Z and Z, Y, and X, but not for other combinations such as X, Z, Y.
    This avoids the confusion that might occur when adding other conditions in the Construct tab leading to ambiguity, such as the INTER command, or using NOT to exclude certain words.
  7. Boolean Search: For the search argument X <AND> Y <AND> Z, the <AND> command returns hits for all combinations of X, Y, and Z.