Proximity operators specify the relative location of specific words in
the document; i. e., specified words must be in the same phrase,
paragraph, or sentence for a document to be retrieved. In the case of the
NEAR and NEAR/N operators, retrieved
documents are relevance-ranked based on the proximity of the specified
words.
When proximity operators are nested, the ones with the broadest scope
should be used first; that is, phrases or individual words can appear
within SENTENCE or PARAGRAPH operators, and
SENTENCE operators can appear within PARAGRAPH
operators. The following table describes each proximity operator.
| Operator name | Description |
|---|---|
IN |
Selects documents that contain specified values in one
or more document zones. A document zone represents an attribute
in a content, for example the date of the last change
(lastChanged) or the body text. |
PHRASE |
Selects documents that include a phrase you specify. A phrase is a grouping of two or more words that occur in a specific order. |
SENTENCE |
Selects documents that include all of the words you specify within the same sentence. |
PARAGRAPH |
Selects documents that include all of the search elements you specify within the same paragraph. |
NEAR |
Selects documents containing specified search terms, where the closer the search terms are within a document, the higher the document’s score. |
NEAR/N |
Selects documents containing two or more search terms
within N number of words of each other,
where N is an integer up to 1024. The
closer the search terms are within a document, the higher the
document’s score. |