Phrase searching

Sometimes you might want to search for a phrase, rather than individual terms, especially if the terms are common words. This is called phrase (or proximity) searching. Not all databases do this, but some do it by default if you do not put a Boolean operator between the terms. Others allow you to specify how close the two terms are to each other.

Phrase searching allows you to combine words so that you only get records where the words are next to each other in the order specified. For example, if you were looking for records about the High Court you would get more precise results by using the phrase high court than if you used high and court.

When you first use a database it is a good idea to establish whether the default setting is a phrase search. Some databases automatically insert AND between words, others assume they are a phrase.

In some databases you can specify that the terms are NEAR one another (eg. smith near jones), sometimes even how near they are to each other. Consult the help screens of the database to see if this is possible.