Searching the online help

When you use the Search feature in the online help, it performs a full-text search. That is, it finds every topic that contains one or more of your search keywords and then lists those topics in the Search results topics list. Searches are not case-sensitive. Punctuation marks are ignored during a search.

You can refine your search by using Boolean operators such as AND, OR, and NOT, wildcard expressions, and nested expressions. When you use one of these methods, it narrows the number of topics returned in the search results.

Use Boolean operators

Use the following Boolean operators to narrow your search:

Boolean	Finds topics containing...
AND	Both words
OR	Either word
NOT	The first word but not the second word
NEAR	Both words within eight words of each other

Search for a phrase

You can search for the phrase "design hierarchy" by enclosing it in quotation marks. You can also search for instances in which two words appear within eight words of each other by using the Boolean NEAR. For example, to find instances where the word "hierarchy" appears within eight words of the word "designer" enter the following search phrase:

hierarchy NEAR designer

Use wildcard expressions

You can use the asterisk (*) wildcard character to narrow your search. For example, searching on *20 returns all help topics containing 20 or a number that ends with 20 such as 20, 91320, 1020, and so on. Similarly, searching on lib* returns topics containing words that begin with "lib" such as "Libero," "library," and so forth. Of course, searching on *20* returns all numbers that contain "20."

Use nested expressions

Nesting helps you create more complex search criteria. Here are the rules:

Expressions within parentheses are evaluated first.
Searches that do not contain a nested expression are evaluated from left to right.
Do not nest expressions more than five levels deep.

The following example shows the difference in search results between a nested and unnested search expression:

ProASIC3E NOT ProASIC OR Axcelerator - returns all topics containing "ProASIC3E" but not "ProASIC," or topics with "ProASIC3E" and not "Axcelerator."

ProASIC3E NOT (ProASIC OR Axcelerator) - returns all topics with ProASIC3E that do not contain either "ProASIC" or "Axcelerator."